Análisis relacional del capital social y el desarrollo de los sistemas productivos regionales

Traditional approaches to social and economic development in regions have been overcome by more integrated perspectives, which already take into account important factors such as agents’ interactions, regional especificities, cultural norms that rule human relations and the role of institutions. Therefore, a crucial asset for a sustainable development is the promotion of social capital, including the capacity to create and expand networks, to nurture a culture based on trust and cooperations and to strengthen effective public institutions and policies. This article presents a new conceptual framework for the study of the contribution of social capital to regional development and the first empirical research of social capital in Andalusian firms and their institutional and business networks. This empirical research, based on a survey to more than 600 enterprises, shows evidence of the relationships between social capital and the performance of the regional system of innovation and the production system.