Rethinking Agency

National innovation systems, social capital, and country image: a multi-country study of international scientific collaborations

“…By contrast, Shram, Chompalov et al (2001) believe that trust between individual scientists is decreasing in importance in the contemporary scientific world where multiorganizational collaborations are required. They contend that one difficulty with the literature on trust is the general failure to distinguish between what they call the "foundational" varieties of trust that are necessary for any cooperative social enterprise, and the more complex varieties of trust characteristic of modern scientific organization.…”

“…A highly relevant concept to the study of ISCs is that of social capital, defined by the OECD (2001) as "networks together with shared norms, values, and understandings that facilitate cooperation within or among groups" (Helliwell 2002). Social capital can be considered as "the goodwill that is engendered by the fabric of social relations and that can be mobilized to facilitate action" (Adler and Kwon 2002).…”

“…It is a concept of reciprocal, trust-based exchange of resources based on reputation. According to Lin (2001), and following from the accepted definition of capital as representing investments that have associated with them expected returns in the market place, social capital is simply "... investment in social relations with expected returns" (Lin 2001, p. 6). Lin further suggests that social capital is valuable because it provides individuals in any organizational, institutional or societal system with multiple advantages: 1) it facilitates the flow of information, 2) it exerts an influence on agents who make decisions with respect to these actors or individuals; 3) it provides individuals with social credentials;…”

“…• multiple institution papers and papers co-authored at the international level are more highly cited than other papers (Narin 1991;Luukkonen, Persson et al 1992;Katz and Martin 1997;Katz and Hicks 1997). Sole author papers appear to be in the minority and have less impact (Katz and Hicks 1997), yet Beaver (2001) believes that there is a persistence of prestige of single-author publications;…”