The effect of corporate social responsibility on social capital creation: an empirical study on participation in social cooperatives

This paper analysis the effect of corporate social responsibility on social capital by carrying out an empirical study on a specific kind of nonprofit organizations: the social cooperatives. With respect to the previous studies on the relationship between participation in nonprofit organizations and creation of social capital, this contribution reveals two main reasons of interest. The first one concerns the indices of social capital. In particular this paper takes into account all the three main dimensions which characterize the concept of social capital according to the existing literature by analysing the notion of social capital in terms of: relational networks, generalized trust and relational skills. Secondly, this paper considers the operational characteristics of nonprofit organizations and shows the importance of some managerial decisions in fostering the creation of social capital. Two main findings are presented: i) a positive impact of the participation in social cooperatives on all the dimensions of membersÕ social capital ii) a positive effect of the adoption of CSR good practices on the social capital creation.