Managing social capital: A concept for creating competitive advantage

Abstract

We live in a world of ever faster, more dramatic, more complex and more unpredictable changes. Technological, market-economic, political, social and global factors all affect the acceleration of these changes, as well as the shaping of the theory and practice of economics and management. The concept of "managing social capital" is increasingly becoming an important concept for creating a competitive advantage in new economics and management. Nowadays, numerous organizations are trying to change their attitude towards social capital and - in accordance with that - direct a significant part of their activities towards quality management. This paper presents the basic elements and connectedness between managing social capital and competitiveness. Although it is clear that these two specialized management disciplines are interconnected, it is necessary to analyse that interconnectedness and determine what networks, values, relationships and beliefs are necessary for the changes, as well as the kind of changes which create social capital of good quality. The research conducted as part of this study this has shown that joining a cluster means entering a specific network of relationships that can lead to a high quality of social capital.

Keywords

• social capital
• components
• cluster
• management
• stages
• competitiveness