The name is absent

Valeria Sodano and Fabio Verneau 197

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

Valeria Sodano and Fabio Verneau

Università di Napoli Federico II, Dipartimento di Economia e Politica Agraria,
Via Università, 96 80055 Portici (NA), Italy ,
[email protected] , [email protected]

Abstract

The paper stresses that in order to understand the current re-organizational processes in the
food system, two kinds of social capital should be taken into account, trust and network-based
social capital. Stemming from a case study, concerning the Italian processing tomato industry,
it demonstrates that while trust seems to enhance social welfare, by reducing transaction costs
and promoting cooperative behavior, network-based social capital mainly affects firm
competitive behavior, with unpredictable effects on social welfare.

Keywords: social capital, trust, networks

Introduction

Social capital is generally deemed to be associated with better economic performance, whether
at aggregate level, i.e. with respect to the whole economy of a country, or at a more micro
level, i.e. with respect to competitive advantages that firms can attain because of their access to
social capital. The most common measures of social capital have been trust and associability.
In the paper we stress that these measures alone, while being effective for macro analysis of
social capital, are ineffective and somehow misleading when assessing the role of social capital
in business performance. In the first section, we give some definitions of social capital and
show how they fit important organizational issues in the food system. In the second section, we
discuss the role of social capital in the Italian processing tomato industry, explaining how
different kinds of social capital account for different strategic patterns followed by the two
agro-industrial districts in this industry. Concluding remarks contain suggestions for future
theoretical and empirical research.

1. Social capital and the food system

The concept of social capital dates back to the early twentieth century and was first used by
authors interested in the analysis and assessment of modern western democracies (Putnam,
Goss, 2002, pp.3-7). Stemming from the seminal work of Coleman (Coleman, 1988), during
the nineties the concept has spread throughout the social sciences, from sociology to
economics, anthropology and politics.

While a survey of different concepts and definitions of social capital is beyond the scope of
this paper, a clarification must be made in order to distinguish at least between two different
strands of literature, that allow for very different ‘discourses’ on the role of social capital in the

<<   1   2   3   4   5   >>

More intriguing information