Based on the insight from Fukuyama¡¦s notion of trust, the main philosophy of the study is: How is it possible for societies characterized by traditional paradox of familism to move beyond the limited radius of trust (in-group collectivism) and reach to the wider and greater social trust (institutional collectivism)? With family as a starting point, the study is based on three theoretical traditions: social capital theory, third sector research and social entrepreneurship studies. Drawing on two case studies in the specific area of social care services in Taiwan and Germany, research questions are addressed as: How does family-driven social entrepreneurship have emerged and developed in two different societies? If any, what is the main difference between the developments of two cases? And how this difference can be explained through social capital theory? Following social emergence paradigm, three foci of analysis, namely social context, collective actors, and emergence process are discussed. Furthermore, three analytical tools for family-driven social entrepreneurship are developed, that is, four-sector-division framework (based on the concept of welfare mix), entrepreneurial system (based on Bruyat and Julien), and domestic versus civic orders of worth (based on Boltanski and Thevenot). The findings suggest that with family as a starting point, social entrepreneurship is grounded, emerges and evolves in the distinctive social contexts. For the case of Taiwan, with the role of self-help group, family-driven social entreprenurship might provide the potential for social transformation from family tie to beyond family, creating a new organization in the third sector. In contrast, for the case of Germany, social entrepreneurship development presents as from family-driven social entrepreneurship to community development. With multi-level associations and the functional coordination among the public administrations, third sector organizations and families as well as the surrounding communities, family-driven social entrepreneurship may reach at the institutional level. By integrating to and coordinating in the coherent interaction between formal institutions and informal cultures, the development of the German case can be related to institutional collectivism. Based on the implications, a contextual Framework for family-driven social entrepreneurship is proposed, namely Family, beyond family, and institution: Developing family-driven social entrepreneurship in Context. From my perspective, social entrepreneurship not only aims to make the isolates re-integrate into society, but also, with macro vision, to make institutions change for society. The direction of institutional change, echoing Fukuyama, is toward the development of an inclusive and vital society through social capital and trust, that is, not only cultivating personal and particularistic trust but also enriching generalized and institutionalized trust in society. With those aims, social entrepreneurship is context-sensitive. Both ends and means of social entrepreneurship are embedded in social context. As a concluding thought, I stress that social entrepreneurship is contextual. With family as a starting point, social entrepreneurship is grounded, emerges, and evolves in distinctive contexts in different societies. Furthermore, in line with Fukuyama, but going further, it is possible for the societies traditionally characterized by the paradox of familism to move toward more inclusive and higher trust through social entrepreneurship. In its essence, social entrepreneurship reveals the ethic of economic life in modern society, that is, not only to accumulate material wealth, but rather to enrich trust for the wider-society as wide a society as possible.

Throughout Chinese history the dominant political philosophy has been that of the ¡§rule of men¡¨. This tradition has an indirect influence on scholars researching the problems of the CCP¡¦s political succession, as they often emphasize Chinese political culture, ¡¥guanxi¡¦ and faction theory, in which they analyze the patters of factional struggles and factional development through the perspective of a conflict. However, Susan Shrik tries to explain that the struggle for power involves other factors such as a person¡¦s departmental distribution of interests. Andrew Nathan discusses the development of factions from a systemic point of view. The group of scholars that focus on the latter perspective seem to be breaking away from the ¡¥social¡¦ aspect of political science, making it difficult to define the motivations of actors within different factions in humanistic terms. In this paper we decided to analyze the problems of political succession within the CCP not only through traditional theoretic patters but also incorporating ¡¥social capitol theory¡¦ as well. In this way we can better analyze how factions and their members build and manage their ¡¥guanxi¡¦ during the process of political succession. Through the analysis of the social context, institutions, and norms involved in factionalism and political succession we can better understand how factions and their members pursue power and legitimacy through the building of social capital in the political succession process. Thus, this paper seeks to use social capital theory to create a clear idea of the role of factions and their members within the CCP during the political succession process.

The research aims to explore the relationships among entrepreneurial orientation, social capital and firm performance when Taiwanese SMEs are expanding their business territory in China. Apart from social capital, there would be more other moderating variables existing in the environment. However, after literature review and in-depth interviews with the SMEs owners/directors/executives, social capital has been regarded as the possible influential factor affecting the relationship between entrepreneurial orientation and firm performance. In the second part of the research, comprehensive literature and studies relating to entrepreneurs, entrepreneurship, and entrepreneurial orientation are investigated and summarized. Later, the literature of social capital and firm performance is summarized in order to develop the hypotheses to examine the relationships among entrepreneurial orientation, social capital and firm performance. This is an empirical research, assisting with in-depth interviews with Taiwanese SMEs owners/directors/executives to outline the findings more accurately. The statistical tools applied in the thesis include SPSS and AMOS. The findings of the research have come up with some practical implications and suggestion. The implications of the results might intrigue people who are interested in the influence of entrepreneurial orientation on organizational success. Lastly, some suggestions are made accordingly for the further development.

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.

China has experienced the rapid socioeconomic change that leads to the evolution of social and physical environment in urban neighborhoods. In recently built neighborhoods, residents lack mutual trust and a sense of community; the neighborhood open spaces have been improved but still do not function well for developing resident social capital. Social capital is a comprehensive concept for evaluating community development. The purpose of this study was to evaluate residents’ social capital in China’s urban context and to examine the relationships between social capital and neighborhood open spaces. The review of literature identified five interpersonal factors of social capital: social network, trust, security and safety, belongingness, and engagement, which were related to neighborhood physical environment. In the city of Guangzhou, two neighborhoods were selected as study fields and two hundred and fifty subjects were randomly selected in each neighborhood to participate in a questionnaire survey. More than 75% subjects returned questionnaires. Ten residents of them then participated in semi-structured interviews. Observation recorded residents’ activities in open spaces. Data were analyzed by statistical methods and domain analysis strategy. The results of statistical examinations demonstrated that residents living with a large number of neighborhood open spaces had higher degrees of social capital than residents lacking open spaces; residents using open spaces frequently developed higher degrees of social capital than residents using open spaces less; residents who were satisfied with their open spaces held higher degrees of social capital than those who were not satisfied with open spaces. Semi-structured interviews explained that well-designed open spaces attracted inhabitants to participate in outdoor activities, which encouraged social interaction among residents, enhanced their mutual trust, expanded social network, and strengthened belongingness to neighborhood. However, open spaces were found not to obviously improve resident engagement. Observations unveiled that a highly versatile and flexible outdoor space was the favorite place for residents of all ages.

Since Texas contains less than 5% public land, private landowners are critical to the success of environmental management initiatives in the state. This has implications for resources that traverse property boundaries, such as wildlife and groundwater. Texas landowners are increasingly capitalizing on the income potential of fee-based hunting, and many have banded together to form Wildlife Management Associations (WMAs). Not only can such landowner associations enhance the coordination of resource management decisions, they also have the potential to increase social capital, which is reflected by interpersonal trust, reciprocity and civic participation. To improve the management of common-pool resources it is important to understand the relationship between social capital and coordinated resource management because long-term community stability and resource sustainability appear to be highly correlated. A 600-landowner mail survey (with 48.1% response) was conducted in the Edwards Plateau region of Texas to compare the land management characteristics and social capital of landowners who are members of WMAs with non-member landowners. The goal of this research was to determine how WMA membership, property size, and location affect levels of social capital and interest in cooperative resource management. It was hypothesized that members, large landowners, and northern landowners would be more interested in cooperative management and exhibit higher social capital. While WMA members and large-property owners were more involved in wildlife management than non-members and small-property owners, this interest in resource management did not carry over to groundwater. These groups were not more involved in groundwater management activities, and all survey groups were disinterested in joining private cooperatives for groundwater marketing. Social capital differences were more evident between large- and small-property owners than between WMA members and non-members. Members scored higher only on community involvement, while large owners scored higher on community involvement as well as trust. These results suggest that WMA membership per se does not significantly increase social capital among Edwards Plateau landowners, but do not necessarily refute the importance of social capital within WMAs. Differences in trust between members were positively correlated with increased communication and meeting frequency, suggesting ways WMAs can improve intra-association social capital.

The national government gave up defense of mainland Chinese and a large number of accompanying troops retreated into Taiwan in 1949. After many years, these soldiers continually retired from the military. In order to take care of these groups of retired soldiers who had contributed to the nation, the Taiwanese government set up a veteran status system. These veterans are also Taiwanese citizens, but they hold a double citizenship, and they can benefit from different departments. This study started with veterans¡¦ social capital points of view in order to see the relationships between the soldiers¡¦ knowledge of welfare, level of needs for welfare use, their satisfaction with welfare, and the number of social capital they have received. The research randomly selected samples and used a face-to-face survey with 250 veterans who are Kaohsiung city citizens and aged 65 and over. Effective surveys of 225 were received. The results of the research show that the age factor influences the participants¡¦ satisfaction about the welfare system. The participants¡¦ veteran ranks, religious beliefs, and current living conditions are related to their knowledge and use of the welfare offered by the government. Veterans with middle-low income have less knowledge of the welfare from the Veterans Affairs Commission and the Department of Health, and also know less about the welfare items offered by the Department of Social Welfare. From the social capital point of view, the more abundant social capital the participants have, the higher knowledge of welfare they have. However, different social capital systems will also affect satisfaction with welfare used. Veterans are more satisfied with using welfare if social capital is abundant in the family system, the neighborhood, community system, and the Veterans Affairs Commission. On the other hand, veterans are less satisfied with using welfare if social capital abundance is evident in the Department of Social Welfare and other systems. In addition, the results also show a significant positive relationship between the participants¡¦ knowledge and use of welfare. The more welfare items they know, the more they use. These results offer suggestions to the individual government departments, including the Veterans Affairs Commission, Department of Social Welfare, and Department of Health, as well as interdepartmental collaboration. Each of the related departments should strengthen their welfare campaigns and service mechanisms. Most importantly, they should improve their integration in order to avoid overlapping and waste on welfare services. In addition, they must set up good referral and transition services and carry out the welfare measures to benefit the veterans in need.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Hong Kong, 2009. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 223-247). Also available online.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Chicago, Department of Psychology, Committee on Human Development, December 2003. / CD-ROM reproduces p. 100-136 of dissertation. Includes bibliographical references. Also available on the Internet.

Thesis (M.A.)--West Virginia University, 2001. / Title from document title page. Document formatted into pages; contains v, 108 p. Vita. Includes abstract. Includes bibliographical references (p. 68-69).