The name is absent

206 Social Capital and the Food System: Some Evidences from Empirical Research

the third strategy really seems tailored to the southern business style and the ability to build
and exploit a network-type social capital.

During the last three decades southern firms have acted as central nodes in the intra-industry
trade within the industry. They have traditionally imported considerable quantities of paste
from Greece and from non-EU sources, for re-processing and re-export. Recently, China has
become their first supplier. Imported Chinese tomato maybe exceeds formally registered flows,
with some manufacturers having been alleged to use Chinese raw product to can “bogus Italian
branded” tomatoes. In the future it is likely that major southern firms will focus on trading
activities more than on production, while small firms being forced to exit the market under the
pressure of lower cost foreign producers. With the core business shifting to trading expertise,
the sort of social capital made of networks allowing for the exploitation of business
opportunities and bargaining advantages associated with structural holes and hub positions, is
likely to become the main source of competitive advantage in the southern district.

Concluding remarks

Social capital can play a key role in current restructuring processes of the food system. Trust-
based social capital promotes collaborative agreements, reducing transaction costs and
allowing cooperative solutions in “prisoner dilemma type” games. Network-based social
capital gives central actors in the competitive arena more opportunities to exploit diverse
sources of competitive advantage. Empirical evidence from the processing tomato industry
suggest that different endowments of social capital can account for very different company
strategies and business styles. High levels of trust are leading emilian firms to improve quality
and seek cooperative agreement with large local retailers. Low level of trust and a traditional
attitude towards exploiting network forms of social capital (also through quasi-illegal
opportunistic behavior) are driving southern firms towards the new food system global
networking game, with unforeseeable competitive and welfare consequences. On theoretical
grounds the main suggestion of the paper is that network based social capital, along with trust,
greatly affect the food system and that a major effort is required in order to measure it.

References

Bowles S., (2004). Microeconomics. Princeton University Press.

Brusco, S., (1996). Trust, social capital and local development: some lessons from the
experience of the Italian districts. In: Networks of enterprise and local development.
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Burt, R.S., (1992). Structural Holes. Harvard University Press.

Coleman J., (1988). Social Capital in the creation of human capital. American Journal of
Sociology, 94 (supplement) 95-120.

Coleman, J.S., (1990). Foundations of social theory. The Belknap Press of Harvard University
Press.

Cook, Karen S. and Richard M. Emerson, (1978). Power, equity and commitment in exchange
networks. Amer. Soc. Rev., 43, 721-739.

Fher E., Gachter S., (2000). Fairness and Retaliation: the Economics of Reciprocity. Journal of
Economic Perspective, 3, pp. 159-181.

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