Social Capital and Innovation: An Intra-departmental Perspective

Abstract

This study examines the relationship between social capital that arises from individual relations and individual innovativeness. Social capital is considered a multidimensional construct and individual innovativeness is measured through six different indicators of scientific production. Individual social capital is compared with the innovative performance of each individual in a whole department. Our work shows that the capacity to access and to mobilize resources through these relations is a key factor in increasing individual innovativeness in a context in which it may be measured. This questions the importance of an individual’s position in a network as well as the structure of the network with respect to innovativeness.