Social Capital

Recently, there has been a shift in the way management scholars view the firm, from more traditional models that are based on ideas of opportunism and market failure , to newer knowledge-based theories that argue for a more socialized perspective . One of the key components of these theories is the notion of social capital. Social capital is the set of resources that accrue to an individual or group by virtue of possessing a set of relationships. Scholarly research suggests that firms can leverage the social capital that is embedded in the relationships of their members to develop intellectual capital (Naphiet & Ghoshal, 1988). As such social capital can be used to create differential organizational advantage.

This study aimed to examine whether social capital (bonding and bridging social capital) attenuate the effect of low functional health literacy on health information resources, efficacy, and behaviors. In-person interviews were conducted with 1,000 residents in Seoul, Korea, in 2011. The authors found that respondents' functional health literacy had positive effects on the scope of health information sources and health information self-efficacy but not health information-seeking intention. Respondents' social capital had positive effects on the scope of health information sources, health information efficacy, and health information-seeking intention. The authors found (a) a significant moderation effect of bridging social capital on the relation between health literacy and health information self-efficacy and (b) a moderation effect of bonding social capital on the relation between health literacy and health information-seeking intention.

Traditionally regarded as the Cinderella sector, further education (FE) is not yet recognized for its research potential and, if researched at all, tends to be 'researched on' rather than proactively enabled to carry out research itself. Although Britain's Learning and Skills Council's FE and Post-16 sector encompasses around six million learners, four thousand providers and £7.3 billion worth of provision, little research in the sector uses the extensive data-rich client base it serves. Few, if any, in-house research findings inform its professional practice. The Learning and Skills Development Agency Research Network and LSC Research Centre have begun to address this gap, mapping out a new blueprint for research developments in the sector, and raising a new capacity for in-house FE-focused research. These exciting national developments form the foundation for this book, which builds on the key importance of research to strengthen the role of further education as the main bridging sector between school and higher education at a time of Britain's increased national investment in raising achievements. This groundbreaking core text in a new field identifies and constructs a new theoretical framework for a specialist FE research culture, recognizing the unique contribution to research of FE practitioner-researchers. The book identifies good practice in this field through a series of in-depth case studies linked to appropriate and innovative research methods. The theoretical framework outlined links the concept of the critical reflective practitioner with the development of knowledge management techniques specific to Further Education research. This book will enable its readers to: 1. Recognize the value of undertaking research in their sector 2. Draw upon their current practice to develop research questions 3. Identify appropriate research questions and design appropriate research techniques accordingly 4. Interrogate other research, from associated fields 5. Undertake literature searches and derive information for a variety of sources 6. Use research -- their own or others' -- to inform their professional practice 7. Have the confidence to create, use and evaluate their sector specific research.

More details
Empowering Researchers in Further Education
By Yvonne Hillier and Jill Jameson
Contributor: Introductory Chapter by Andrew Morris
Published by Trentham Books, 2003
ISBN 1858562856, 9781858562858
194 pages

This paper reviews the origins and definitions of social capital in the writings of Bourdieu, Loury, and Coleman, among other authors. It distinguishes four sources of social capital and examines their dynamics. Applications of the concept in the sociological literature emphasize its role in social control, in family support, and in benefits mediated by extrafamilial networks. I provide examples of each of these positive functions. Negative consequences of the same processes also deserve attention for a balanced picture of the forces at play. I review four such consequences and illustrate them with relevant examples. Recent writings on social capital have extended the concept from an individual asset to a feature of communities and even nations. The final sections describe this conceptual stretch and examine its limitations. I argue that, as shorthand for the positive consequences of sociability, social capital has a definite place in sociological theory. However, excessive extensions of the concept may jeopardize its heuristic value.

Since the DCMS Creative Industries Mapping Document highlighted the key role played by creative activities in the UK economy and society, the creative industries agenda has expanded across Europe and internationally. It has the support of local authorities, regional development agencies, research councils, arts and cultural agencies and other sector organisations. Within this framework, higher education institutions have also engaged in the creative agenda but have struggled to define their role in this growing sphere of activities. Higher Education and the Creative Economy critically engages with the complex interconnections between higher education, geography, cultural policy and the creative economy. This book is organised into four sections which articulate the range of dynamics that can emerge between higher education and the creative economy: partnership and collaboration across higher education institutions and the creative and cultural industries; the development of creative human capital; connections between arts schools and local art scenes; and links with broader policy directions and work. While it has a strong UK component, it also includes international perspectives, specifically from Australia, Singapore, Europe and the USA. This authoritative collection challenges the boundaries of creative and cultural industry development by bringing together international experts from a range of subject areas, presenting researchers with a unique multidisciplinary approach to the topic. This edited collection will be of interest to researchers and policy-makers working in the area of creative and cultural industries development.

Abstract: In this paper, we outline a number of features of an interdisciplinary and pluralistic approach to economics. As a suitable example of how an interdisciplinary cooperation can unfold, we focus attention on the relations between institutional economics and psychoanalysis. In the first ...

Purpose: To investigate whether social capital may explain differences in teen pregnancy rates in the contiguous United States. Method: State-level correlational analyses were conducted. Predictor variables included social capital, income inequality, and poverty. Main Outcome Measure: State-level rates of pregnancy for girls 15-19 years old. Results: In bivariate analyses, social capital was inversely correlated with teen pregnancy rates. The obtained correlation was strong (r ϭ Ϫ.78) and achieved significance (p Ͻ .001). Poverty and income inequality were also significantly correlated with teen pregnancy rates, but the magnitude of these correlations was lower. In a linear regression model, poverty failed to retain significance; however, income inequality achieved significance and produced a Beta value of .24 (p ϭ .017). Social capital was nonetheless a much stronger multivariate predictor of teen pregnancy rates (producing a Beta value of Ϫ.672). Conclusion: Findings from this state-level analysis suggest that social capital may explain differences between states with respect to teen pregnancy rates. Thus, social capital may play an important role in the prevention of teen pregnancy. This initial finding warrants subsequent empirical investigations designed to identify strategies that can be employed to foster the creation of social capital in communities and entire states.

Policy decisions at the organizational, corporate, and governmental levels should be more heavily influenced by issues related to well-being—people’s evaluations and feelings about their lives. Domestic policy currently focuses heavily on economic outcomes, although economic indicators omit, and even mislead about, much of what society values. We show that economic indicators have many shortcomings, and that measures of well-being point

In the manifold excesses of current Anglo-American managerial praxis, from short-term time horizons, grossly distorted expressions of managerial prerogatives and remuneration rationales and a calculated brutality far in excess of any Human Relations sensitivity, the need to inflate shareholder perceptions of the "bottom line" has led to a managerial immorality that staggers many ethical and stakeholders' boundaries. Post Enron, Tyco and others, can much change? Are all senior managers doomed to the moral/ethical vacuum of the "bottom line"? With remuneration packages deliberately focused around an economic-rationalist "brutality," what reflective space, what discourse allows and enables moments of remorse/regret and accommodates the inevitable need for personal accountability and attempts at restitution? Is it merely recourse to recalcitrant legal/governance codes that provides for accounting for managerial incompetence and ideologized greed? How will management discourse remember the current regressive nature of managerial behaviour? How will Knowledge Management, in full flight with rhetoric about the importance of Tacit Knowledge, deal with organizational incompetence?

The paper proposes a conceptual model based on the Interaction Approach-a relationship framework that is used to further engage research into IT outsourcing relationships. It is the nature of interactions and the exchange processes embodied in the social aspect of the relationship that is the focus of this paper. By drawing on an extensive literature review of outsourcing research the paper offers to advance knowledge and understanding of IT outsourcing relationships. The framework is advocated as the most appropriate instrument for the management of and investment in outsourcing relationships in the contemporary business environment. The aim is to generate scholarly discussion and to set a research agenda, not to offer definitive answers. Several research studies have emphasized the importance of the outsourcing relationship for outsourcing success yet they lack the clarity about how relationships could be managed effectively and leveraged for business advantage. This paper addresses this gap in IT outsourcing literature and argues that it is in the creation of social capital-how the actions, attitudes, consensus and cooperative mechanisms of management and staff in interaction with their counterparts in partner organizations-influence and affect the outsourcing relationship and the evolving social structure that determines success in the venture.

This article deals with the role of community-based ecotourism for strengthening human and social capitals as well as for enhancing culture and forest livelihood of riverbank dwellers in the Tapajós region, in central Amazonia. The research was done based on the premise that ecotourism can be a potential avenue for putting in evidence local culture, identity and singular lifestyles as while it can contribute to strengthen the local networks which can result in collective material and immaterial advantages. The analysis examines the hypothesis that outsiders (the tourists) once they travel to and stay with local communities, they become the primary agents who are in a position to perceive the main aspects of values, beliefs and routines as particularities of an Amazonian livelihood. Even though the visitors usually stay a few days in a certain community, they end up paying enough attention to what the locals tell and do. This way, the tourists involuntarily put the locals at the centre of their visit, to the extent the locals start realizing how important their forest lifestyle is. This argument certainly does not aim at validating the "spetacularisation" of forest people, of their environment and of their culture. Instead, the authors are rather interested in the processes through which outsiders can direct or indirectly-as ecotourism participants-contribute to improve the quality of life and to raise self-esteem of riverbank dwellers. Some Amazonian peoples (of remote areas) usually have a feeling of periphery and of marginalization, because they do not take part in the 'developed metropolitan world'. The self-esteem factor gets relevance in an academic debate, because the Amazonian peoples hold a feeling of being periphery and marginal in reason of not being part of a 'developed metropolitan world'; and this may cause adverse effects on their attitude and expectations. The investigation has a qualitative approach in order to produce descriptive data. Open and semi-structured interviews and participant observation were the main methods used for getting information from the riverbank dwellers.

 Background & Context  Theory & Evidence  Research Questions  Methods  Results: Significant findings  Student-level  School-level  Discussion  Implications The Study  Purpose  Provide new empirical evidence of how high school socioeconomic context influences two-year and four-year college enrollment.  Improve our understanding of the secondary-postsecondary nexus to inform policies and practices aimed at improving access to college for all students.  Preview of findings  Educational contexts have lasting influences across educational settings.  Some student-and school-level resources compensate for disadvantages, while other student-and school-level resources perpetuate disadvantages based on low socioeconomic status of high schools. Research Questions and Conceptual Framework Research Questions  Central hypothesis: The socioeconomic context of high schools conditionally influences the effects of capital resources (economic, human, social, and cultural) on students' postsecondary enrollment.  Question 1. Do individual-level enrollment choices and access to resources differ by the high school socioeconomic context?  Question 2. Do individual-level determinants of postsecondary attendance differ across high school socioeconomic contexts, controlling for the availability of resources at the high school level?  Question 3. Do school-level determinants of postsecondary attendance differ across high school socioeconomic contexts, controlling for differences in student-level characteristics? CONCEPTUAL FRAMEWORK FOR POSTSECONDARY ENROLLMENT

The purpose of this article is to stimulate and inform discussion about the community role in sustainable development and to broaden our understanding of the opportunities for sustainable community development activity. It begins with an overview of sustainable development, question-ing its focus on poverty as a major source of environmental degradation, and suggesting instead that both poverty and environmental degradation result largely from wealth. It next examines the concepts of natural capital and social capital, whether (and if so, how) they are linked, and explores their implications for sustainable development at the community level. Chapter 3 examines planning theory and sustainable development, finds that while planning theory is, or should be, relevant to sustainable development, planners concerned with key aspects of sustainable development will have to look to “greener ” pastures for relevant theoretical guidance. Chapter 4 considers the implications for achieving sust...

Na entrevista que se segue, ocorrida em 14 de julho de 2020, Thiago relata suas experiências e impressões do combate à Covid-19 na favela Santa Marta. Numa cronologia pessoal que se entrelaça com a história da favela, ele apresenta reflexões desde os momentos anteriores à chegada da pandemia até suas expectativas para o futuro. Transitando entre o envolvimento em projetos sociais e o trabalho como guia de turismo, ou desde o seu envolvimento na rádio comunitária até a criação do conjunto de grupos de WhatsApp para a comunicação entre os moradores, seus relatos expressam que a constituição e preservação de redes de contatos em sua trajetória foi determinante para a possibilidade de implementar ações rápidas e eficientes no combate às desigualdades expressas pela pandemia.

Objectives. We research the political impact of human social interaction. Some scholars suggest that recreational or other informal interaction may promote political participation. Informal recreational interaction is proposed to be beneficial because it increases activity in more serious political participation. Methods. To test these ideas, we use new nationally representative survey data from seven East Asian nations using Poisson regression models. Results. We show that informal social interaction and nonpolitical voluntary activity do increase political participation. Conclusions. Even though the recreation may begin as a nonpolitical activity, we show that it may spark later political participation.

Questo lavoro intende verificare se la presenza di fattori socio-istituzionali (capitale sociale, l'attivismo istituzionale e l'accumulazione di esperienze di azione collettiva fra imprese) in un territorio, valorizzando il ruolo delle esternalità "da conoscenza", possa favorire la performance innovativa della singola impresa. Si utilizzano i dati dell'Indagine Capitalia sulle imprese manifatturiere italiane e la banca dati ISL dell'Università di Parma per elaborare un modello econometrico in cui il processo innovativo è condizionato da fattori interni ed esterni all'impresa. I risultati suggeriscono che la capacità innovativa delle imprese è favorita dalla presenza di capitale sociale (inteso come senso civico e come interazione sociale) e dall'attivismo delle istituzioni intermedie.

This study examines the female postsecondary advantage in matriculation among Hispanic and white youth with the goal of exploring whether social capital, in addition to academic performance and orientation, function similarly to help explain females' higher likelihood of college attendance for each group. Utilizing data from the Texas Higher Education Opportunity Project (THEOP), results indicate that girls' higher academic performance in high school is an important factor behind their subsequent gender advantage in 4-year college attendance, particularly for Hispanic students. Additionally, compared to their co-ethnic male peers, Hispanic and white girls have greater levels of social capital, such as more academically-focused friendship groups in high school, that are associated with higher rates of college attendance. However, girls' greater frequency of discussion with high school counselors about college appears to contribute to the female advantage in matriculation only for Hispanic students. For both groups, the analyses suggest that all of the factors considered explain substantially less of the female advantage in 2-year college matriculation than they do for the female advantage in 4-year matriculation. In general, the results underscore the need for more research considering the complex processes through which gender and race/ethnicity intersect in shaping individuals' paths to college.

Trust is a key factor in the development of collective action, and thus in the performance of communities, institutions and society. Seminal scholarship has greatly valued the social virtues of trust and to a lesser degree those of caution. Consequently, scholars have expressed concerns regarding the socialist ‘legacy of distrust’, which have negatively influenced processes of democracy and development in the post-socialist states. While quantitative measurements of trust have become standard in cross-national surveys, in depth qualitative research has remained exceptional but helpful. By employing a mixed-method design of cross-national analysis of secondary data and qualitative examination of 69 in-depth interviews in a post-‘socialist city’, this paper investigates the determinants of (dis)-trust in post-socialist Romania. The analysis draws attention to the entwined social and rational origin of trust and distrust. Findings show that institutional trust has risen from practically zero due to better public management and freedom to express opinions. However, institutional trust has remained low due to perceptions of widespread bribery and favouritism – not necessarily experienced but reinforced through social learning and the media – and to a general discontent with some institutions, particularly the police, the political elite and the judiciary. Conversely, interpersonal trust has been rapidly declining though it had not entirely vanished and has remained generally confined to families and bounded groups. By growing social distrust, people have reacted to the increasing social inequality during the post-socialist transition and its associated figures of the insular individualist and predatory capitalist. This does not invalidate the thesis of socialist ‘legacy of distrust’, but significantly adds to it. Data quantification suggests that the effect of increasing social inequality during transition is six times stronger than the effect of persistent communist legacies on current levels of social distrust. This has important policy implications, which are outlined in this paper.

Although the term ‘social capital’ comes from western lexicon, but it has been used in several forms in India. It has enjoyed an impressive upsurge across the social sciences,development studies and policy-making discourses. This paper provides a brief introduction to the origin of the term with Indian and western connotations along with recent theoretical backup and links between social cohesion, quality of governance,economic performance and human welfare. Despite some limitations of social capital,the literature indicates that it makes an unquestionable input to economic development and overall wellbeing. The advent of social capital theory grounded serious sound academic research in social sciences and established the link between social economics and mainstream economics. This paper argues that social capital cannot be separated from social and political contexts for meaningful economic activities.

This paper investigates the determinants of awareness of local community action to address environmental issues and water conservation in a drought-prone Australian community. With researchers arguing that social capital, broadly defined as the social connectedness of a community, may foster sustainable communities that collaborate to solve community issues, the paper examines the extent to which levels of social capital in a community predict environmental sustainability. Postal surveys of 168 residents living on the Gold Coast in Queensland, Australia investigated the extent to which eight distinct elements of social capital, individual feelings of environmental responsibility, outdoor activities and key demographic characteristics predicted awareness of community level environmental and water conservation. The majority of participants believed that their community had taken action to address environmental issues, with logistic regression analyses demonstrating that the best predictor of community action was the neighbourhood connections element of social capital. These findings, linking sustainable environmental action at a community level to social capital, suggest that a focus on building social capital may be an effective strategy that facilitates both social and environmental sustainability. As the first study to directly examine the relationship among social, environmental and community sustainability in Australia, the findings, implications and limitations are discussed in detail.

About a decade ago Mitton (1989) suggested that success for start-ups not only depends on who you are but also on whom you know. Around the mid-90s research results were published showing that essential resources for start-ups were in fact acquired through the entrepreneurs' social networks including family, friends, pre-existing work relations, and affiliation with various societies (Foss, 1994; Ostgaard & Birley, 1996; Hansen, 1995). To study these aspects of social capital in relation to entrepreneurial activities, research in a Danish start-up context in two knowledgeintensive sectors has been carried out. The research methodology was based on a triangulation approach including a general questionnaire-based survey conducted through the Internet as well as a number of in-depth interviews in purposefully sampled ventures. The results provide an analysis of the content and structure of social capital in relation to entrepreneurial activities in new technology based small firms showing that teams are primarily composed of 'trusted alters' and networking patterns are highly influenced by the entrepreneur's attitude to and perception of networking.

Public policy and programs for older adults traditionally have focused on the delivery of benefits to targeted individuals. Over the past decade, age-friendly community initiatives (AFCIs) have developed as a paradigm shift in contrast to this predominant focus. AFCIs engage stakeholders from multiple sectors within a typically local geographic area to make social and/or physical environments more conducive to older adults' health, well-being, and ability to age in place and in the community. We describe three general categories of AFCIs, including community planning approaches, support-focused approaches, and cross-sector partnership approaches. Following from this conceptual overview, we posit four key policy-relevant questions with implications for the expansion of AFCIs, including what public policy supports are necessary for the implementation of AFCIs across diverse communities, how entities outside of aging can be engaged to collaborate, to what extent advocates for vario...

In the past decade, two topics have generated much interest in the idea of social networks and network analysis. These are social capital, popularised by Robert Putnam, and small-worlds, popularised by Duncan Watts and Albert-László Barabási. Social capital highlights local processes and network structures, theorizing the ways in which relations and their patterns link individuals and groups to resources and beneficial outcomes. Small-worlds emphasizes global network structures, describing how large, heterogeneous networks can nonetheless appear small to individual actors, largely as a result of the high clustering and weak, bridging ties that make up these networks' structure. Although social capital and small-worlds share social networks as a common basis, they emphasize different sides of a spectrum: social capital focuses on the local and small-worlds on the global. In addition, both focus on seemingly different social phenomena: social capital emphasizes access to resources, whereas small-worlds emphasize the tension of actors living in a social world that is simultaneously large and small. In spite of these differences, the literature points towards overlaps in the ways in which network structure is described: both social capital and small-worlds discuss structures of openness and closure, and these structural overlaps provide a means by which to start exploring, on a theoretical level, additional ways in which to bring about a synthesis of the two bodies of literature. In this paper, I situate social capital as an explanatory framework for the emergence of small-worlds. I do this through three phases: first, I discuss how each topic describes and theorizes opennenss and closure. Next, I develop a series of propositions that show how social capital can be linked to small-worlds in a coherent framework. Finally, I offer an empirical illustration of these propositions through the use of p*, one of the models from the larger family of exponential random graph models (ERGMs), which allow analysts to test the probability of certain local structural tendencies in a given network.

Social capital is widely recognized as one of the five capitals that can be used to sustain livelihood, avert risk and vulnerability. This paper looks at the use of social capital as a risk mitigation device and to sustain livelihood and food security. In this research IFPRI panel data collected during 1996-1997 (pre-flood) and 1999-2000 (post-flood period) and field data

This study examined associations between self-rated health and combinations of social participation and trust among ageing people in three living areas of Finland (N ¼ 2815, 66% response rate). Social participation and trust combinations were: low social capital (low participation/low trust), traditionalism (low/high), ''the miniaturisation of community'' (high/ low) and high social capital (high/high). The highest rate of good self-rated health was found among the high social capital group, but after adjusting for background variables, statistical significance remained only in the urban area. High social capital measured at an individual level may thus promote health among ageing people. r

O presente trabalho buscar analisar o comportamento dos usuários do site de rede social Facebook, com o escopo de elucidar qual a influencia que os conceitos de capital social e de laços sociais podem ter sobre os hábitos de consumo dos anúncios publicitários de empresas e produtos que estão inseridos dentro da plataforma do Feed de notícias do Facebook. A partir desses conceitos analisamos qual a efetividade que o capital social exerce sobre a aceitação das informações dos anúncios. Por fim chegou-se a conclusão que muitos dos usuários do site de rede social Facebook ainda sentem-se receosos com o acesso de anúncios, porém o fator que mais influência o acesso são as curtidas e compartilhadas feitas por aqueles usuários considerados seus laços sociais fortes, ou seja, aqueles amigos próximos que detém maior acumulo de capital social.

HCI projects are increasingly evaluating technologies in the wild, which typically involves working with communities over extended periods, often with the goal of effecting sustainable change. However, there are few descriptions of projects that have been successful in the long-term. In this paper we investigate what factors are important for develop- ing long lasting community ICT interventions. We do this by analysing a successful action research project and provide five recommendations for facilitating sustained community engagement. CrowdMemo aimed to preserve local heritage in a town in rural Argentina and the project was set up so that it could be continued by the community once researchers had left. Participants created videos about personal memories of the town and over 600 people attended the premiere where they were first screened. The impact has not just been short-term and there has been sustained engagement with the project by stakeholders in the town and wider region: the lo- cal school integrated digital storytelling into its curriculum; the approach has been adopted by two nearby towns; and the project has influenced regional government educational policy.

Background Social capital, defined as the people one knows and the resources available through that network of people, has been a key variable in research examining the participation of women and underrepresented minority students in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM). This study focuses on two types of social capital: instrumental (concrete advice and resources) and expressive (emotional support and encouragement). The analysis of interviews with 55 White women and women and men underrepresented minority engineering undergraduate students shows how the instrumental and expressive social capital received from parents influenced their students’ declaration of and persistence in the engineering major. Within this analysis, we considered students’ transition to adulthood and the corresponding expectation that parents would still provide support but allow their children to independently determine their own paths. Results Participants shared the advice they received...

Social capital is known as a key wealth underlying the development of nations, providing an environment of mutual respect, reciprocity and community awareness where strong civil societies can flourish. This paper shows how the development of social capital is included as a main topic in an entrepren eurship program for undergraduate students. It constitutes an approach to work on aspects like ethics and social responsibility that is very appropriate in the cont ext of entrepreneurship education. An activity is describe d where students are asked to generate social capital within their own community. In teams, they have to approach the owner or manager of a small business to perform a one-month technological, marketing or administrative work for the benefit of the business. Participants report that a major challenge is to conquer the owner's confidence, even after explaining that no financial compensation is expected by the team and its goal i s simply to generate social capital....

The Educational Policy Institute (EPI) is an international, non-profit think tank dedicated to the study of educational opportunity. Our mission is to provide high-level research and analysis to support policymakers and practitioners and expand educational opportunity to all students. EPI was incorporated as a non-profit organization in 2002 and has operated as such for the past five years. EPI was created to fulfill a need for more rigorous educational research and to create better linkages between research and public policy communities. EPI is headquartered in Virginia Beach, Virginia, with satellite offices in Toronto, Ontario, and Melbourne, Australia.

The relationship between afterschool staff and students is very important for encouraging and promoting longevity in school. The primary goal of this study was to examine the connection between perceptions of staff-student relationships and the educational values, future aspirations, and engagement of LA's BEST students. To this end, we developed a set of research questions which would help us examine the association between strong staff-student relationships-characterized by mutual trust, bonding, and support-and student variables such as academic engagement and future aspirations. To address these evaluation questions, staff and student surveys were piloted and developed by the National Center for Research on Evaluation, Standards, and Student Testing (CRESST) and widely administered to both afterschool staff and students. Descriptive statistics were computed for the survey data; HLM analyses and structural equation models were fitted to examine the variables. Afterschool programs have become much more than childcare providers for working parents or safe havens within violent communities. They have blossomed into powerful learning centers for students with lasting and far-reaching effects. These programs possess an asset that gives them the ability and opportunity to influence students to develop a belief system that will ultimately impact their academic and social futures-that asset is social capital.

Knowledge represents one of the most valuable resources by which both individuals and organizations leverage and extract value resulting in benefits such as increasing individual’s domain expertise, improving work performance, and achieving competitive advantage. Traditional knowledge management literature focuses mostly on knowledge creation and dissemination within organizations. Due to the recent advancements in information and communication technologies, online social structures (e.g. virtual community-of-practice) are emerged with the primary purpose of knowledge exchange.  Prior research on KM has highlighted various factors that affect individual’s willingness to share knowledge. However, there has been little research focused on understanding individual’s intention of future participation in these online societies. Since members‟ continuous voluntary contribution is critical to the sustainability of an electronic environment, it is timely to investigate what drives members’ motivation to continue knowledge sharing in the electronic communities.
In this study, we focus on knowledge sharing behavior in the Electronic Networks-of-Practice. We examine the motivations that drive individuals to continue sharing knowledge in the open content contributing network, specifically Wikipedia.

Keywords: Electronic Network-of-Practice (ENoP), online communities, knowledge sharing, knowledge management, Wikipedia