• Corpus ID: 160005003

Année académique 2008-2009 Working paper 09 / 23 The paradox of social capital : a look through the individual rationality

@inproceedings{Hermans2010AnneA2,
  title={Ann{\'e}e acad{\'e}mique 2008-2009 Working paper 09 / 23 The paradox of social capital : a look through the individual rationality},
  author={Julie Hermans and Thomas Lederer},
  year={2010}
}

• J. Hermans, T. Lederer
• Published 2010
• Sociology

In this paper, we confront the notion of social capital developed in the knowledge-based view of the firm, in particularly in the seminal work of Nahapiet and Ghoshal (1998), with its original conception from contemporary sociologists like Bourdieu (1986), Putnam (1995, 1993), Coleman (1988) and Burt (1992). We build on those authors to highlight a key facet of social capital: its use as a tool for the micro-macro transition which was elaborated in the underlying sociological theories and is nevertheless neglected in the management literature. After the presentation of our arguments, we propose some guidance to integrate the individual rationality advocated by Coleman in the framework of Nahapiet and Ghoshal and show how it could bring some lights to the knowledge creation and sharing processes at stake in organizational contexts.