A Literature Review and Prospects of Social Capital Cross-level Fit in New Ventures

Zheng Fang, Peng Zhengyin, Du Danyang

Foreign Economics & Management Vol. 39, Issue 08, pp. 71 - 84 (2017)  DOI:10.16538/j.cnki.fem.2017.08.006

Abstract

Social capital is a multi-level concept. The transformation of individual social capital into enterprise social capital, is an important way for new ventures to access entrepreneurial resources and remedy new entry defects. Based on a review of individual-organization fit theory, new venture social capital study and social capital cross-level research, this paper proposes the construct of cross-level fit of social capital. Through cross integration of resource-based view, fit theory, social capital theory and motivation theory, deductive theoretical construction of cross-level fit is discussed. Then based on the combination with relationship, structure and cognition of social capital, the process of social capital cross-level fit in new ventures is deconstructed into three stages, namely recognization, connection and internalization. Finally this paper provides prospects for future study based on deficiencies of existing study. This paper not only helps to clarify internal mechanism between cross levels of social capital, but also proposes a new idea for future study.

Keywords

social capital; cross-level fit; new venture; deductive theoretical construction; process deconstruction