This thesis develops a conceptual framework for relating Social Capital theory to large IT outsourcing projects. It uses this to explore how social factors that arise in outsourcing situations can influence organisations’ competence in IT innovation. It finds that social capital principles provide a valuable alternative perspective to established practices in managing IT outsourcing. Social capital can be applied both in the analysis of IT outsourcing results and in planning outsourcing transitions that lead to improved longer term knowledge creation and innovation capability. Research was carried out in two large and established users of IT outsourcing, a UK government agency and a major bank. Based on this, two detailed case studies were prepared and an interpretive methodology used to understand how the respective outsourcing projects had developed. A conceptual model of the interacting organisational factors that lead to IT competence is derived from existing literature and tested against the case study data. This model sets out the new concept of an ‘outsourcing enclave’ as a unique structure in which knowledge resources of outsourcing client and vendor are combined, supported by social capital that is distinct from that in either feeding organisation. The thesis uses the model to observes how, in the cases studied, effective management of social capital in outsourcing enclaves has created situations conducive to knowledge creation and innovation and the barriers to this that were encountered. This reveals that social capital management in these organisations called for time after outsourcing transition during which social capital can stabilise in the enclave, for learning from the achievement of short term objectives and for application of relational governance alongside the outsourcing contract. The main contributions of the thesis are the conceptual framework of the outsourcing enclave and the use of this to apply social capital theory to specific situations of IT outsourcing. It also demonstrates how theorised dimensions of social capital can be used to interpret outcomes in real outsourcing situations. The cases provide further empirical support for social capital theory and their interpretation a basis for further research in the specific area of outsourcing and IT outsourcing in particular.

The purpose of this paper is to look at the effect of social media use on social capital. This paper attempts to establish a dichotomy between 'real' and 'perceived' social capital and the effect of social media use on both. I use a survey instrument measuring both the social media use and `real' social capital of one group compared with the social media use and `perceived' social capital of the second group. I find that while social media use is related with survey respondents feeling more involved politically and in their community, there is no correlation between actual political/community involvement for other respondents.

As the significance of corporate social responsibility (CSR) increased in the last decade, more enterprises, encouraged by governments, are promoting CSR practice. Therefore, it is necessary to evaluate the conceptualisation of CSR in regions with different cultures, histories, socio-cultural practices and religions. This study was based on a social constructionism approach and the research questions were answered through reviewing the theoretical basis established according to the collection of existing studies, as well as analysing empirical findings obtained from multiple case studies of Korean small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) CSR champions, extensive interviews with international organisations (IOs) and Korean governmental agencies, and documents provided by the case companies, IOs and governmental agencies. This research found different characteristics of CSR between SMEs and multinational corporations regarding language and a necessity for differentiation strategy for development across firm size, industry and governance. Moreover, SMEs' global, national and organisational factors affected their learning and practice of CSR, resulting in different outcomes and peculiar characteristics. These findings could generate the new integrated model to understand CSR by combining two Social Capital Theory perspectives (Coleman, 1988; Fukuyama, 1995). This model facilitated in-depth analysis of the role of CSR in SMEs' development, building social capital on the process of SMEs' CSR practice by establishing virtuous cycles from trustful relationships internally and externally. Finally, it was shown that the CSR territory is expanding from the major Western developed countries to the emerging markets, especially in East Asia. Also, case study of the Korean CSR champions among SME sector could contribute to identifying characteristics of exemplary CSR cases to achieve social and economic responsibilities. Further, this research could provide about their conceptualisation and relationships with other education factors. Therefore, this study provides directions how other ordinary SMEs adopt CSR within their organisational settings, how policy makers set up their governmental support and how academics research about SMEs' CSR.

Rural high school students are much less likely to choose higher education than their urban or suburban peers as their post high school choice. This research examines the process of choice of four rural high school graduates and their lived realities through this transition. From the four interviews conducted reoccurring themes of strong community `kinship,' high support level in school, and low parental attainment immerged. These themes highlight a sacrifice of individual identity for a collective community identity and social context in which fears of difference (race and class) underlie the rejection of foreign experiences. Low parental attainment shifts the cultural capital to peers or teachers while limited ranges of employability further gender and divide post high school choice.

Master of Arts / Department of Communications Studies / Natalie Pennington / College student persistence has long interested scholars and universities alike (Bean, 1983; Goodman, & Pascarella, 2006; Hlinka, 2017; Moschetti & Hudley, 2014; Pascarella & Terenzini, 2005; Tinto; 1993; 2012). While universities have given attention to the academic integration of students (e.g., their GPA and general academic performance), social integration has become increasingly more studied as an integral component to a student’s likelihood to persist (Tinto, 1993; 2012). This study incorporated social capital theory (Coleman, 1988) as a lens to understand how social integration may affect a student’s likelihood to persist. Using survey methodology and a sample of first-year students at large midwestern university (n = 101), the results showed that strong school social capital in the form of relationships with peers and authority figures at college may help a student overcome structural disadvantages embedded within their family and home community social networks. Specific differences in the formation of social capital between nonrural and rural students were also explored with meaningful results. Rural students were more likely to perceive stronger relationships with authority figures at college than nonrural students, and nonrural students were more likely to perceive their home communities as more supportive of higher education than rural students.

This research focuses on social relationships within a school context and explores how social relationships within that context contribute to the production and reproduction of inequalities. The research draws on Bourdieu's work and examines the key role of schools in reproducing social and cultural inequalities (Bourdieu 1998). The research explores the process of producing and reproducing inequalities from the perspective of the young people. The study uses the lens of social capital to investigate how social relationships in the form of social capital practices operate within the classroom and the wider school context. While acknowledging structural and cultural dimensions highlighted by Bowles and Gintis (1977) and Willis (1981), I seek to explore how the social relationships between young people in a school context contribute to well documented educational inequalities. I argue that Bourdieu's theoretical framework offers the opportunity to explore relationships by placing social capital in relation to other capitals (economic and cultural) and to locate practices of everyday life, thus linking micro-social and macro-social structural factors. The starting position of this research focuses on the micro, i.e., the individual pupils as active agents in relation to social capital within the school context, before locating it within a wider macro context. The research uses a sequential mixed method design collecting data on the participant's social networks and exploring social practices with semi structured interviews. The research highlights how education and schooling produce and reproduce inequalities in and through the two case study sites.

abstract: The purpose of this study was to determine if social capital for parents in a low-income urban school would develop through structured or unstructured parent-teacher meetings. The parent-teacher meetings were developed to provide opportunities for parents and teachers to meet to build relationships and develop trust through teaching and learning how to support reading fluency and reading comprehension strategies. In order to build relationships between parents and teachers both parties need to trust one another. Trust is the foundation of relationships but before parties can trust one another, opportunities to form relationships need to be provided. In the case of parents and teachers, the study suggests that the parent-teacher meetings might be a starting point to provide opportunities to form trusting relationships. As parents and teachers work collaboratively to support the academic needs of the children, parents will increase their social capital and learn how to navigate the school system. The findings of the parent-teacher meetings showed that the perceptions of parents and teachers varied. The findings of the study did not display any noticeable differences in responses between the structured and unstructured group of participants. Parents appreciated meeting with teachers to learn how to support student learning at home and believed teachers were influential in the educational experience of their children. Teachers believed: parents want to support student learning at home, but lack academic skills; parents are the influential in the educational experience of the students; and parents are hesitant to ask school staff for help. / Dissertation/Thesis / Ed.D. Educational Administration and Supervision 2013

The aim of this research was creating metrics for measuring social connectedness in social media. This thesis made use of social capital theory in order to inform the construction of original metrics. The methodology used in this thesis involved conducting a literature review into the use of social capital theory in social media, proposing new metrics, implementation in software, validation, evaluation against other measures and finally demonstrating the utility of the new metrics. A preliminary case study verified the suitability of using Facebook as a context for developing the metrics. The main practical work outlined in this thesis aimed to validate Social Capital in Social Media (SCiSM) metrics against the Internet Social Capital Scale (ISCS) (Williams 2006). The SCiSM metrics were developed to relate to bonding social capital, bridging social capital and total social capital (Putnam 2000). The methodology used to validate the SCiSM metrics was Meneely (2012) and involved using two independent data sets to validate the SCiSM metrics using both correlations and linear regression. Statistical analysis found a strong positive correlation between ISCS and SCiSM whilst regression analysis demonstrated that the relationship between SCiSM and ISCS was concerned with ranking rather than an absolute number. SCiSM was evaluated against other social capital metrics used in the literature such as degree centrality. It was found that SCiSM had a higher number of significant correlations with the ISCS than other measures. The SCiSM metrics were then used to analyse the two independent data sets in order to demonstrate their utility. The first data set, taken from a Facebook group, was analysed using a paired t-test. It was found that bonding social capital increased over a twelve week period but that bridging social capital did not. The second data set, which was taken from Facebook status updates, was analysed using correlations. The result was that there was a positive correlation between number of Facebook friends and bonding social capital. However it was also found that there was a negative correlation between number of Facebook friends and bridging social capital. This suggests that there is a dilution effect in the usefulness of large friend networks for bridging social capital. In conclusion the problem that this research has addressed is providing a means to improve understanding of social capital in social media.

How do organizations build trust under varying degrees of uncertainty? In this article, we propose that different degrees of uncertainty require different bases of trust. We distinguish between three different forms of trust production (process-based, characteristics-based and institution-based) and develop hypotheses regarding their relative effectiveness under low versus high levels of product and performance uncertainty. Using survey data on 392 interorganizational buyer-seller relationships, we find support for our position that a high degree of uncertainty favours process-based trust production, whereas characteristics-based trust production is relatively more effective when uncertainty is low. The effectiveness of institution-based trust production is not significantly affected by uncertainty. We derive implications for organizational trust production under different degrees of uncertainty, which should encourage new research on trust.

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