Search results for "network closure"

Social capital in the international operations of family SMEs

2012

PurposeThe aim of this study is to discuss how social capital is developed in the internationalization process of small and medium‐sized family enterprises (family SMEs).Design/methodology/approachThis paper reports findings from an in‐depth multiple case study with four Finnish manufacturing family SMEs. The data were analyzed through the perspectives of structural holes, network closure, and the interplay between these two mechanisms.FindingsThe material in the paper demonstrated that family entrepreneurs had a large number of structural holes when launching international operations, but also after several years of running international operations. Instead of trying to span structural hol…