Using human capital theory and social capital theory, I develop a model to explain the circumstances surrounding outside director appointments, patterns of outside board affiliations and outside director exits. I investigate why individuals become outside directors, why they continue to serve as directors after appointment, and why they terminate their service on boards. I find that an executive's home firm career and prestigious affiliations predict the likelihood and patterns of outside directorship service. Outside directors are critical to effective corporate governance, and to understand the board-governance process we need a better understanding of outside director service.

The purpose of this study was to understand school counselors´ and teachers´ perspectives on the prevention of bullying in relation to social capital. The study was based on a qualitative process with semi-structured interviews from three teachers and three school counselors from three different schools. The main question was to find out teachers and school counselors perspectives of bullying in relation to social capital. The analysis was based on a theory that focuses on social capital, where trust and confidence as well as universal and selective interventions are important. Today, bullying is considered a serious and significant problem in school. School and school climate can be an arena of social capital, where trust and confidence exists and where bullying can be seen as an undesirable social capital, as it can contribute cause to the trust and confidence between people reduce or destroyed. Therefore, it is important to find successful ways to prevent and stop bullying. The main conclusion in this research was that trust and confidence are important in the prevention of bullying in order to achieve a desirable social capital.

This study examines the connection between social capital and involvement within voluntary associations; involvement is defined either as being a member in an association or a member who has some kind of assignment in an association. The study also examines if there is a difference between two social economic groups regarding the attainment and transformation of social capital through being involved in a voluntary association. Social capital is defined as social trust and the willingness of collective action. The result of the research shows there is a slight connection between the involvement in voluntary associations and social capital. It shows that people who are members of a voluntary association often have higher social capital than those who are not members of any voluntary association at all. The study also shows that there is a difference in attainment of social capital between those who have some kind of assignment in a voluntary association and general members. When studying social capital and involvement in voluntary associations it is also of interest to take social class into the analysis, because the study shows that people with a lower education had increased social capital when they were members in an association compared to the members with a higher education.

Since early 2010, Facebook.com, the world’s most popular social network site (SNS), has come under a storm of media criticism over the commercial use of its users’ personal information. Yet even as more became known about the fact that Facebook sells publicly shared information to companies for advertising purposes, two years later the SNS amassed one billion members in October 2012. Based on in-depth interviews 30 Millennials (18 to 32-year olds) and 10 Boomers (48 to 58-year olds) that are daily users of Facebook, this dissertation provides a qualitative analysis of attitudes toward privacy and personal information disclosure on Facebook. What steps—if any—are being taken by users to regulate their personal information disclosure? How do users feel about the website selling their personal information to advertisers? What are the benefits of using Facebook and do they outweigh the risks of having one’s information used for commercial purposes? Or is it even seen as a risk at all? What are the sociological implications of users’ answers to these questions? I challenge prevailing conclusions that the intensity of Facebook use is associated with higher levels of social capital and that Facebook is especially useful for maintaining and building bridging ties to one’s acquaintances. On the contrary, among Millennials in my study, the website is used for maintaining bonding ties between close friends and family members, not bridging ties between acquaintances; that the maintaining of bridging social capital is by comparison merely a passive benefit. As well, while the Boomers in my study use Facebook to maintain bridging ties, maintaining social capital is not a consideration. In arriving at this conclusion, I thematically broke out the benefits of using Facebook as Facebook is my life online, Facebook is my primary connection to others, and Facebook is a convenient communication and information tool. As well, the perceived risks of using Facebook involve a lack of privacy and, to a lesser extent, issues of control. For the Millennials and Boomers in my study, the practical benefits of using Facebook outweigh the perceived risks, and the perception of control on the user’s part is a key factor in rationalizing their ongoing use of the website. As a practical application of my findings, I propose how the marketing research industry might apply these findings toward learning more about consumers.

Social capital and self-concept were measured in a sample of 86 primarily African American female adolescents before and after participating in the Cool Girls, Inc. program, and in 89 comparison girls. Two dimensions of social capital (the diversity of girls’ social networks and the number of life domains in which girls were able to access help) were examined. It was hypothesized that participation in Cool Girls would be associated with increases in social capital and that this would mediate the relationship between participation in Cool Girls and increases in self-concept. Cool Girls participants experienced increases in social capital. Cool Girls and comparisons both experienced gains in most domains of self-concept, except for behavioral conduct, that were related to increases in number of help domains. Furthermore, there was a significant indirect effect of participation on social acceptance, global self-worth, and body image mediated through number of help domains. Implications are discussed.

Some evidence suggests that single parents may experience lower social capital than partnered parents. However, few studies have examined whether social capital is useful in explaining the frequently reported mental health differential between single and coupled parents. The research questions for the current study were: 1) can disparities in mental health between single and partnered parents be explained by differences between these groups in social capital, above and beyond that explained by economic factors?; and 2) Are there particular dimensions of social capital which are more or less strongly associated with family structure disparities in mental health? The data source was Statistics Canada’s 2010 General Social Survey (Cycle 22). Analysis was restricted to 18-59 year old single (n=648) and partnered (n=4952) parents. Principal components analysis was conducted to develop a measure of social capital. Multiple logistic regression analyses were conducted to examine the relationship between family structure and perceived mental health, prior to and after adjusting for socioeconomic and social capital measures. All analyses were conducted separately for mothers and fathers. Single mothers scored lower than partnered mothers on some, but not all measures of social capital. Poor mental health was more common among single than partnered mothers (OR=3.03, 95% CI 2.23-4.12). After adjustment for all explanatory factors, including social capital, the odds ratio for family structure and mental health decreased but remained statistically significant (OR=2.13, 95% CI 1.48-3.3.06). Although single fatherhood was associated with a 1.81 greater odds of fair/poor self-rated mental health compared to partnered fathers, the difference did not meet the traditional criterion for statistical significance (95% CI 0.97-3.37; p=.06). Single fathers did not score differently than partnered fathers on most of the social capital dimensions. Although social capital, particularly the dimension of trust, may play a role in understanding single mothers’ poorer self-rated mental health relative to partnered mothers, the results of this study are too preliminary to inform policy directed at improving their mental well-being. Longitudinal research which includes a larger sample of single fathers is needed to clarify the nature of the relationship between family structure, social capital, and mental health

This thesis has examined how expatriate managers in Russia create and use social networks with other individuals, in order to be successful in their assignment on an international unit. The study has also focused on how corporations can benefit from these networking activities conducted by the expatriates. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with expatriate managers on location in Russia in order to answer the research question. The interviews have later been analyzed by using a theoretical framework mainly based on the social capital theory and the main findings are as follows. Expatriate managers in Russia create networks with other individuals in order to both receive new business opportunities but also for adjusting to life in Russia. Corporations themselves do also benefit from these social networks, since they can create foundations for new business opportunities and increase corporations general image. The limitations of this study are that only Swedish expatriates have been included in the presented empirical material.

Whether entrepreneurial opportunity is objectively existed or it could be deliberately created is still a disputable issue in academic filed. However, increasing number of scholars tend to conclude that entrepreneurial opportunity comes from a process of recognition, discovery and creation by alerted entrepreneurs. Based on this point, it seems to be obvious that entrepreneurs must have some kind of knowledge and abilities, poses special source of information and involved in certain social networks. So that they can easily find those opportunities that other can¡¦t. In this study, I apply Ardichivili¡¦s(2003) opportunity identification and development theory to discuss this issue through a viewpoint of human capital and social capital. Seven entrepreneurs were interviewed to conduct the survey, and the content is analyzed through six coding unit to show the following results: 1. The general human capital is intermediately positive to opportunity recognition and highly positive to opportunity development. 2. The specific human capital is highly positive to both opportunity recognition and opportunity development. 3. The weak-tie network is highly positive to opportunity recognition but low positive to opportunity development. 4. The strong-tie network is highly positive to both opportunity recognition and opportunity development. 5. Entrepreneurial human capital is mediated by social capital to have positive effects on opportunity recognition and opportunity development.

Due to the rise of social networking, people spend more time on the Internet. They not only make friends and express their emotion in the real life, but also in the virtual world. In the stage of the Internet, which without limit in time and space, we can even perform so that other people can spectacle and join us. Hence, through the IT design functions which social network websites offer, how users can perform or spectacle easily on the social network websites, and what the meaning is about the action-dramas which users have performed. A private blog-Plurk, which we also called micro blog, is using as a field of study. In this thesis, we use Ethnography survey to observe and interview the users. We use Coffman¡¦s Dramaturgical approach as the study framework, and divide it into five parts- Front Stage Style, Team Management, Role Play, Impressions Control and Intimate Relationship to analyze. In the data analysis, we compare IT function design and performing dramas. We will find out what the affordance the IT function can offer, and what the drama will perform. Finally, we will sort out the implications of the management and social capital. From this thesis we can learn: 1. What kind of IT functions offer to users on Plurk? 2. Through these IT functions, what kind of action-dramas will perform? 3. What are the implications and meanings of all these action-dramas? This thesis focus on the performing dramas and IT affordance because of the difference between IT function offer and design, the action-dramas will perform quite different, and the IT affordance will facilitate different key point. Therefore, from this thesis we hope that we can figure out some important functions and reasons that people is willing to stay longer on our website and some instructions for the website designers.

none