Scholars of the theory of the firm have begun to emphasize the sources and conditions of what has been described as “the organizational advantage,” rather than focus on the causes and consequences of market failure. Typically, researchers see such organizational advantage as accruing from the particular capabilities organizations have for creating and sharing knowledge. In this article we seek to contribute to this body of work by developing the following arguments: (1) social capital facilitates the creation of new intellectual capital; (2) organizations, as institutional settings, are conducive to the development of high levels of social capital; and (3) it is because of their more dense social capital that firms, within certain limits, have an advantage over markets in creating and sharing intellectual capital. We present a model that incorporates this overall argument in the form of a series of hypothesized relationships between different dimensions of social capital and the main mechanisms and proces...

https://www.jstor.org/stable/pdfplus/259373.pdf

Social Capital, Intellectual Capital, and the Organizational Advantage

Our task is to adopt a multidisciplinary view
of trust within and between firms, in an effort to
synthesize and give insight into a fundamental
construct of organizational science. We seek to
identify the shared understandings of trust
across disciplines, while recognizing that the
divergent meanings scholars bring to the study
of trust also can add value.

Not So Different After All: A Cross-Discipline View Of Trust

This paper presents evidence that "social capital" matters for measurable economic performance, using indicators of trust and civic norms from the World Values Surveys for a sample of 29 market economies. Memberships in formal groups—Putnam's measure of social capital—is not associated with trust or with improved economic performance. We find trust and civic norms are stronger in nations with higher and more equal incomes, with institutions that restrain predatory actions of chief executives, and with better-educated and ethnically homogeneous populations.

/pdf/does-social-capital-have-an-economic-payoff-a-cross-country-495nwir3gz.pdf

Does Social Capital Have an Economic Payoff? A Cross-Country Investigation

A separate and distinct interaction with both the actual e-vendor and with its IT Web site interface is at the heart of online shopping Previous research has established, accordingly, that online purchase intentions are the product of both consumer assessments of the IT itself-specifically its perceived usefulness and ease-of-use (TAM)-and trust in the e-vendor But these perspectives have been examined independently by IS researchers Integrating these two perspectives and examining the factors that build online trust in an environment that lacks the typical human interaction that often leads to trust in other circumstances advances our understanding of these constructs and their linkages to behavior

Our research on experienced repeat online shoppers shows that consumer trust is as important to online commerce as the widely accepted TAM use-antecedents, perceived usefulness and perceived ease of use Together these variable sets explain a considerable proportion of variance in intended behavior The study also provides evidence that online trust is built through (1) a belief that the vendor has nothing to gain by cheating, (2) a belief that there are safety mechanisms built into the Web site, and (3) by having a typical interface, (4) one that is, moreover, easy to use

Trust and TAM in online shopping: an integrated model

The present historical moment may seem a particularly inopportune time to review Bowling Alone, Robert Putnam's latest exploration of civic decline in America. After all, the outpouring of volunteerism, solidarity, patriotism, and self-sacrifice displayed by Americans in the wake of the September 11 terrorist attacks appears to fly in the face of Putnam's central argument: that \"social capital\" -defined as \"social networks and the norms of reciprocity and trustworthiness that arise from them\" (p. 19)'has declined to dangerously low levels in America over the last three decades. However, Putnam is not fazed in the least by the recent effusion of solidarity. Quite the contrary, he sees in it the potential to \"reverse what has been a 30to 40-year steady decline in most measures of connectedness or community.\"' As an example of how the current \"war on terrorism\" could generate a durable civic renewal, Putnam points to the burst in civic practices that occurred during and after World War II, which he says \"permanently marked\" the generation that lived through it and had a \"terrific effect on American public life over the last half-century.\" 3 If Americans can follow this example and channel their current civic

Bowling alone: The collapse and revival of American community

Part 1 Trust considered: formal structures and social reality, Bernard Williams the biological evolution of co-operation and trust, Patrick Bateson individuals, interpersonal relations and trust, David Good trust as a commodity, Partha Dasgupta trust and political agency, John Dunn familiarity, confidence, trust - problems and alternatives, Niklas Luhmann. Part 2 Trust observed: three ironies in trust, Geoffrey Hawthorn the distraction of trust and its economic consequences in the case of 18th-century Naples, Anthony Pagden trust, cohesion and the social order, Ernest Gellner mafia - the price of distrust, Diego Gambetta kinship, contract and trust - the economic organization of migrants in an African city slum, Keith Hart neither friends nor strangers - informal networks of subcontracting in French industry, Edward Lorenz.

Trust : making and breaking cooperative relations

In this concluding essay I shall try to reconstruct what seem to me the central questions about trust that the individual contributions presented in this volume raise and partly answer. In the first section, I briefly qualify the claim that there is a degree of rational cooperation that should but does not exist, and I shall give a preliminary indication of the importance of the beliefs we hold about others, over and above the importance of the motives we may have for cooperation. In the second section, I define trust and the general conditions under which it becomes relevant for cooperation. In the third, I discuss the extent to which cooperation can come about independently of trust, and also whether trust can be seen as a result rather than a precondition of cooperation. In the final section, I address the question of whether there are rational reasons for people to trust and especially whether there are reasons to trust trust and, correspondingly, distrust distrust.

Can We Trust Trust

Description: In a society where trust is in short supply and democracy weak, the Mafia sells protection, a guarantee of safe conduct for parties to commercial transactions. Drawing on the confessions of eight Mafiosi, Diego Gambetta develops an elegant analysis of the economic and political role of the Sicilian Mafia.

The Sicilian Mafia: The Business of Private Protection

Blood ceremonies, obscure symbols, elaborate codes, brutal executions: the arcane remnants of a defunct culture? The Mafia, this book suggests, is not nearly as bizarre as all that, not nearly as remote as we might think. In fact, as Diego Gambetta's analysis unfolds, the Mafia begins to resemble any other business. In a society where trust is in short supply, this business sells protection, a guarantee of safe conduct for commercial and social transactions. It grudgingly shares the market with other concerns like itself, of which it is merely the most successful brand name. The author develops his economic theory with ample evidence, much of it based on the remarkable work done by Judge Giovanni Falcons and his colleagues in Palermo and Agrigento in the 1980s. Drawing on the confessions of eight Mafiosi and the trials their revelations triggered, Gambetta is able to explain all manner of peculiar Mafia marketing strategies that have been endlessly misinterpreted in the past. He makes illuminating - and unexpected - comparisons between the business of protection and ordinary industries, such as automotive, insurance, and advertising. And he teases out the subtle distinctions between protection and extortion, in which the protector himself poses a threat. This approach reshapes traditional interpretations of the Mafia - its origins, functions, and social consequences. Applying the rational terms of economics, Gambetta shows how such a recognised evil can perform a real service, and how such a recognisable service can inflict great harm on society.

Diego Gambetta

Papers

Trust : making and breaking cooperative relations

Can We Trust Trust

The Sicilian Mafia: The Business of Private Protection

The Sicilian mafia: the business of private protection

Trust: Making and Breaking Cooperative Relations