Social capital as a soft factor in facility location planning

The decision on the facility situation depends not only on traditional hard local factors such as market structure and proximity to customers, proximity to suppliers and raw materials, access to rail and air transportation, establishment costs but on the soft local factors (external economic factors-personal choices.) One of these factors is social capital. There is a growing literature in sociology and political science on the "social capital". Social capital is defined as networks together with shared norms, values and understandings that facilitate co-operation within or among groups. Empirical results show that more social capital and higher levels of trust are associated with bigger firms, and higher economic growth. In developing countries, the lack of social trust is the most important factor in front of developing. Many studies find a remarkable correlation between the trust in a country and the presence of large organizations and focused a correlation between a country's level of trust and its rate of growth.

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Social Capital As ,

A Soft Factor In ,

Facility Location Planning ,