Assessing the Contribution of Social Capital to Corporate Flexibility in Real-Life Contexts

Abstract

Following deductive reasoning, the foregoing investigation suggests a significant contribution of social capital to the development of corporate flexibility in born transnational firms. Building upon an in-depth conceptual analysis up to this point, corresponding causal relationships were thereby identified along four dimensions and indicated through the derivation of seven meaningful propositions. However, in order to get a more comprehensive and reliable understanding of the contribution of social capital to the development of corporate flexibility in born transnational firms, the conceptually derived propositions are yet to be validated by evidence from real-life contexts (Yin, 2009: 9; Bromley, 1986: 23). For this reason, it is intended to further subject the associated propositions to empirical testing. Given the aforementioned difficulties regarding an adequate measurement of social capital, it appears that a qualitative research method would be most appropriate in this context (Miles and Huber-man, 1994: 42).