Gender specifics in entrepreneurs’ social capital: implications for firm performance

Abstract

Using a sample of 315 respondents from the Mangaung metropolitan municipality in South Africa, this study sought out to examine the existence of gender differences in social capital using two popular operationalisations of social capital. The study also examined how the different types of social capital influenced the performance of men-owned and women-owned businesses. The results showed significant gender differences in social capital with men having a higher level of structural, relational and linking social capital, while women had a higher level of bonding social capital. Furthermore, it was observed that structural and bonding social capital had a consistent influence on firm performance across gender. However, relational and bridging social capital was only associated with performance for men-owned businesses, while cognitive social capital was only significantly associated with the performance of women-owned businesses.

Keywords: gender, performance, structural, relational, cognitive, bonding, briding, and linking social capital