Drawing on participatory knowledge creation, this thesis examines the diverse ways in which social capital of poor, rural women in Bangladesh serve as a “capacity of individuals to command scarce resources, by virtue of their membership in networks or broader social structures” (Portes 1995:120). It addresses how women’s capacity to command resources, needed for their livelihood and for a dignified life, is influenced by cultural practice, power and gender relations, which interplay within and around their networks. Women are represented as active participants who are shown to celebrate, adapt, sustain, negotiate and resist the circumstances of their lives. Women find space to manoeuvre in the situations they face, strategize in their dealings with various actors, and manipulate resources and constraints. The author argues that the social capital of women and the portfolio of bonding, bridging and linking relations that women have, or do not have, are keys to an understanding of the bargaining processes in their households and communities. Among the research participants, women’s ability to eventually change cultural practice, power- and gender relations depends upon whether women, individually or collectively, have a variety of bonding, bridging and linking relations to strengthen their bargaining power.

¡@¡@By utilizing longitudinal data over 10 years, this research tries to examine the relationships between distinctive political linkages by family members and the diversification implications in family business group in Taiwan. The past researches have highlighted that the political linkages established by family members have significant influence on the family business group¡¦s diversification. However, there is little researches examine who¡¦s political linkage is critical in determining the diversification decision in family business group. From social capital viewpoint, this research tries to investigate the diversification implications of political linkages established by three family roles, i.e., the founder, the sons, and the marriage roles, in family business groups. The results reveal that the founder¡¦s informal political linkages have significantly positive influence on the diversification. Furthermore, the political linkages established by marriage roles do not reveal significant influence on the group¡¦s diversification. However, the son¡¦s political linkages have distinctive influences on the diversification decision. In that, the son¡¦s formal political linkages have significantly negative influence on diversification, but the son¡¦s informal political linkages have significantly positive influence on diversification. The results indicate that the differential roles in family business groups have distinctive influence on the strategy decisions. The results provide insightful theoretical and practical implications in diversification issue and political linkages issues in largely family business groups.

In this study, We use the entrepreneur¡¦s personal resources and social capital to explore the content of the resources of small and medium steel enterprise. Its purpose is to understand the entrepreneurial small and medium steel companies in the personal course of business, what resources are put into individual entrepreneurs, What resources are obtained through social networks; and the relevance between entrepreneur¡¦s personal resources and social capital. In Entrepreneurial resources, we integrate RBT and characteristics of the steel industry to development the study of entrepreneurial resource perspective, and was divided into "assets" and "capabilities" of two variables. Entrepreneurs are using personal resources Huang (2003) view that "knowledge, capability, experience" and "organizational factors" two variables. In social capital, by Halpern (2008) view of social capital, that " bonding", " bridging", "social norms" and "sanctions" of four research variables. This study adopts a qualitative case study methods to entrepreneurs interviews to obtain first hand coding analysis, and the following conclusions: 1. Entrepreneur¡¦s " knowledge, capability, experience " have a positive influence to the enterprise¡¦s assets and capabilities. 2. Entrepreneur¡¦s "organizational factors " have a low positive influence to the enterprise¡¦s assets, but have a positive influence to the enterprise¡¦s capabilities. 3. The bonding social capital have a positive influence both to the enterprise¡¦s assets and capabilities. 4. The bridging social capital have a low positive influence to the enterprise¡¦s assets, but have a positive influence to the enterprise¡¦s capabilities. 5. The social norms of social capital have a positive influence both to the enterprise¡¦s assets and capabilities. 6. The sanctions binding of social capital have a positive influence to the enterprise¡¦s assets, but have a positive influence to the enterprise¡¦s capabilities. 7. Social capital have a high correlation for entrepreneur¡¦s personal resources , so social capital have a positive influence to entrepreneur¡¦s personal resources.

Over a decade, the Kaohsiung city experienced the test of globalization and also competed with other cities. Its main industrial structure has changed from heavy industry to service one. The adjustment of industry structure and the improvement scheme of improving unemployment rate were both facing stern challenges. All this time, the Urban Spotlight and the Lover River has been noticed. Under such circumstances of globalization, Kaohsiung city government may not have the opportunities to develop various kinds of industries. However, tourism industry did not catch the eye too much. The Tourism Bureau of R.O.C. kept marketing the medium and long-term of tourism plan and tried to promote the tourism industry, however, Kaohsiung City owned the strength of two international harbors but not the tourism industry. This study aimed to disscuss the public-private partnership of Kaohsiung city and wish the Kaohsiung City Government could value the importance of public-private partnership on developing the tourism industry. This study utilized the structure of public-private partnership theories and related researches of tourism development under the public-private partnership. Afterwards take the cases of tourism development under the public-private partnership in Hualian County, Taiwan and Edinburg, Scotland and Sendai City, Japan for analyzing. Finally, find out how to developd tourism industry with private sector by utilizing the In-depth interview method. The following findings were discovered: 1. The lack of parking lot and environmental hygiene problem show not only the industry economic issue but also the basic infrastructure of livelihood. 2. Local government needs to consider the overall advantage and generalize the direction of tourism policy. By the contact and collaboration with private tourism sector to establish the strategy and find out the best way to develop the regional distinctive tourism industry. About the private partnership strategy: 1.In tradition, public sector controls most of resources in the regional economic activities and its strategy plan affects the regional economy development. The Kaohsiung City Government should strengthen the public-private partnership system and follow the example of other countries to unite the private sector by adopting a bottom-to-top way. Thus, it would be more creative in the tourism industry. Moreover, it is important to establish a committee by integrating the travel unions and tourism associations. 2.Further integrating the private tourism resources, such as unique local tourism, ecotourism and culture tourism in order to expand the market and the range of public-private partnership.

In this era emphasizing the knowledge economy, corporate survival has been paid special attention following the financial depression. For the corporate under the era of knowledge economy, competitive advantages are from knowledge sharing and organizational innovation. More recently, literature has emerged that offers findings about social capital as a complete concept to explore its influences and functions. In this study, we seek to address the three dimensions, namely relationship, trust, and norms of the internal social capital in the context of Chinese culture and further explore the interactive relationships and influences among them. Using the structure equation model, we use data collected 385 knowledge workers from the high-tech, financial and medical industries of Taiwan. The findings show that (1) relationship has positive influences on norms and trust; (2) the relationship, norms, and trust have positive influences on knowledge sharing; (3) the internal social capital has positive influences on organizational innovation; (4) knowledge sharing has a positive influence on organizational innovation; (5) knowledge sharing has partial mediating effects on social capital and organizational innovation. Furthermore, we proposed a theoretical model of relationship, norms, and trust for future research. These findings could be useful in academic field and practical applications.

The study aims to analyze the impact of political linkage on diversification strategy and firm performance. Previous studies indicate that firm¡¦s political linkages will generate performance impact in emerging economies. However, whether firm¡¦s political linkages will generate performance implications are underestimated. By utilizing longitudinal data in financial family business groups in Taiwan, this study tries to examine the relationships among political linkages, diversification strategy, and family business group¡¦s performance from the social capital viewpoint. The results indicate that in the current database, the higher level of formal political linkages, the higher degree of diversification in family business groups. Moreover, diversification strategy will generate mediated impact on the relationship between formal political linkages and performance in family business groups. In that, the consideration of diversification will lower the performance implications by formal political linkage in family business groups. The family business group¡¦s formal political linkageswill generate distinctive impact on diversification strategy and performance in emerging economies. The results provide referable value in addressing political linkages issues in family business groups in Asia.

The impact of Community - on health is one of the core issues of sociology and social epidemiology. Dengue fever, whose occurrence and eradication highly depend in the environment of the community, provides an opportunity to explore the relationship between the community and the health. This study focuses on the outbreak of Dengue fever in 2006 in Kaohsiung City and analyzes how community factors affect the cluster infections of. This study uses the theories of social capital and social vulnerability to explore the effect population, socioeconomic status, and public participation in the community on cluster infection. Social capital is formed by community members through participating in public affairs and voluntary organizations; social vulnerability refers to the overall socio-economic conditions that shape the ability of community to respond to the undesirable events. The social capital index was constructed composed of the Community Development Association, the voting rate of warden elections. Social vulnerability index is based on the compositions of the population, including the proportion of elderly males, population change rate, ratio of low-income households the proportion of dependents than average household income. In addition to consideration the spatial characteristics of dengue fever, this thesis uses Moran's I and LISA test dengue fever outbreaks, and correct the result by Geographically Weighted Regression. The results shows the impact of community factors on the health of residents, provide health sociology and control of dengue fever different reflections direction.

K-pop throughout Asia and cause a new Korean wave in recent years, fans who adore K-pop idol has been gradually expanding and attracted much attention. You can see fans showing their fanatical behavior from the news reports. Fans use the Internet to quickly grasp the information, the e-community is the best platform for fans. Fan culture has become increasingly rich and diverse in the era of the Internet. This study tries to explore that fans how to interact with the Internet technology¡HAnd the Internet technology how to change the network relationship between the fans¡HIn this study, the data collected through participant observation and interviews with fans who adore K-pop idol. The result found that Internet is the best tools for fans, it can transmit and spread information. The Internet became a bridge which connecting fans around the world. Fans gathered together and collected resources to reach the goal, they also establish online identity based on their common e-community¡Bcommon experience instead of their background.

This dissertation addresses generalized trust in Post-Communist Europe. I examine trust stressing two sets of factors: the impact of attitudes associated with cleavages coming out of transition to democracy, and the importance of informal interpersonal association over more formal, structured forms of association. I argue that the classic list of cleavages suggested by Lipset and Rokkan (1967) have less importance to trust since those cleavages developed under the communist one-party state and were therefore less connected to the party system. As a result, these classic cleavages did not have the same mobilization functions as they did in Western Europe. Instead, I argue that cleavages that have developed out of the transition to democracy and a free-market economic system bear greater importance to trust. I further argue that due to the experience of forced group association during the communist era, and lingering distaste for formal political participation, the familiar Western models of the benefits of social engagement underestimate the importance of informal association in the post-communist states. Informal association was a key component of survival during the communist era and continues to be a valuable means of conferring information and forming political judgments. The first contribution this dissertation makes is that it brings together theories of political cleavages with theories of trust and social capital development. The dissertation bridges the gap between societal divisions and the position of the individual within these divisions. A second contribution of the dissertation is the testing of established theories of formal social engagement in post-communist states. The secretive nature of association during the communist era differs greatly from the open nature of association in the West. Theories of trust and social capital development must take this fact into account when exploring post-communist states.

Besides the three traditional ICs(Intellectual Capital) including Human Capital, Structural Capital and Customer Capital, Social Capital(SC) has been recognized as a forth critical IC of an organization in the network economy. In the 21st century, various kinds of collaborations among organizations such as strategic alliance or virtual organization play a major role in the global competition marketplace; no one can do their business alone. Therefore, only an inter-organizational collaborative team with strong relationships and network ties among the members can more efficiently and effectively discover, evaluate and exploit the emerging entrepreneurial opportunities. The purpose of this study is to investigate the impact of a firm¡¦s social capital on its capabilities to discover, evaluate and exploit the entrepreneurial opportunities. Three dimensions of a firm¡¦s social capital are canalized. (Nahapiet & Ghoshal, 1998) (1)structural dimension: includes network ties and network configurations (2)cognitive dimension: includes shared codes, languages and narratives (3)relational dimension: includes trust, norm, obligations, and identifications. Moreover, since a firm¡¦s absorptive capability of new knowledge and its past related knowledge base also influence the effectiveness of its exploitation of entrepreneurial opportunity, Absorptive Capability Theory (Cohen & Levinthal, 1990) and current knowledge base of a firm are also used as two variables in the research model to increase the integrity of the model. An empirical survey methodology is applied to test the research model and hypotheses proposed in this study. Five out of nine hypotheses are validated in our research model with Path Analysis. The research result reveals that the structural dimension of a firm¡¦s social capital has the most impact on its abilities of entrepreneurial opportunities; on the other hand, a firm¡¦s absorptive capability of knowledge is affected by the structural and relational dimensions of social capital. Furthermore, the result validates that both absorptive capability and the abilities of entrepreneurial opportunities of a firm exhibit significant path dependency. This result will be useful to both the academic and business particularly in its advocacy of the cultivation of the structural dimension of a firm¡¦s social capital.