Online entrepreneurship and social capital : a study of blogshops in Singapore.

• Main Author: Tay, Jing Ying.
• Other Authors: Zhou Wubiao
• Format: Final Year Project
• Language: English
• Published: 2009
• Subjects: DRNTU::Social sciences::Sociology
• Online Access: http://hdl.handle.net/10356/14981
• Institution: Nanyang Technological University

Studies on the link between entrepreneurship and social capital are often premised on conventional brick and mortar entrepreneurship. It has been established that social capital has significant bearings on the trajectories of entrepreneurships because it affects the opportunities and resources which entrepreneurs have access to. Through this pioneer study of Singaporean blogshops, it is further reinforced that social capital helps the blogshops in this study lower barriers to entry in the trade through access to information in the realm of the internet. Upon entry into the blogshop community, blogshops engage in rational action to augment the size and density of such networks. Within networks, the mechanisms of trust and sanctions help to define the boundaries of the networks. Social capital here works on a more communal level where collective action is observable. Finally, social capital maintains and grows blogshops through constant self-regeneration and accumulation of social capital.