Multidimensional social capital in new ventures

2013

This paper analyzes and provides empirical evidence on how three different dimensions of social capital (structural, relational, and resources) have a direct causal relation on the performance of financial service start-ups. To this end, a structural equation model is estimated and validated from a database, including information from 142 Argentinean entrepreneurs who answered a questionnaire specifically designed for this research. The main finding of the paper is that the main source of value of social capital for an entrepreneur is the existence of high-quality links. Moreover, the quality of the entrepreneur's links is even more important than their quantity. This conclusion has relevan…