Social cooperatives, social welfare associations and social networks

Degli Antoni, Giacomo and Sabatini, Fabio (2015): Social cooperatives, social welfare associations and social networks.

Abstract

We use an original dataset to study how participation in two types of nonprofit organizations, i.e. social welfare associations and social cooperatives, affects individual social capital, intended as networks of cooperative relationships. Participation in both the types of organization allows members to start new social relations. However, social welfare associations seem to play a significantly greater role in the development of volunteers’ social capital, favouring the creation of weak ties that are used to exchange information and advice, and offering the opportunity to establish stronger ties entailing concrete mutual support. Within social cooperatives, workers appear to develop their individual social capital to a greater extent than volunteers. Our results suggest that the composition of the workforce, the depth of members’ involvement in the organization’s activities and human resources strategies adopted by the management influence the creation of cooperative relations through on-the-job interactions.

• Item Type: MPRA Paper
• Language: English
• Keywords: social capital, nonprofit organizations, social cooperatives, social networks, volunteering
• Subjects: L - Industrial Organization > L3 - Nonprofit Organizations and Public Enterprise > L31 - Nonprofit Institutions ; NGOs ; Social Entrepreneurship; L - Industrial Organization > L3 - Nonprofit Organizations and Public Enterprise > L33 - Comparison of Public and Private Enterprises and Nonprofit Institutions ; Privatization ; Contracting Out; P - Economic Systems > P1 - Capitalist Systems > P13 - Cooperative Enterprises; Z - Other Special Topics > Z1 - Cultural Economics ; Economic Sociology ; Economic Anthropology; Z - Other Special Topics > Z1 - Cultural Economics ; Economic Sociology ; Economic Anthropology > Z13 - Economic Sociology ; Economic Anthropology ; Social and Economic Stratification

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