ABSTRACT
The image of atomistic actors competing for profits against each other in an impersonal marketplace is increasingly inadequate in a world in which firms are imbedded in networks of social, professional and exchange relationships with other organizational actors. Firms operating in a network have many more resources they can access to increase their ability to compete than do single firms operating independently. While the concept of social capital has been embraced by several disciplines with partially varying definitions, relationships, or relational capital, represent a major component of all of them. Social capital has become an important asset to multinational firms because of the need for appropriate resources (e.g. information, technology, knowledge, access to distribution networks, etc.) to compete effectively in global markets. Therefore, multinational firms may be able to gain a competitive advantage because of their social capital. Importantly, the focus was on the differences in the social capital held traditionally by Asian and Western firms.
