Social capital and social entrepreneurship: Analysing links

A major portion of social capital literature is devoted to identifying the sources and factors that contribute to social capital development. In developing countries, social entrepreneurs have the capacity to motivate and organise villagers as a group to participate in their development activities. But there are limited studies that highlight their influence on social capital production. This paper analyses the links between social capital and social entrepreneurship by assessing the activities of social entrepreneurs in community organisations. Three voluntary organisations from rural India have been used as case studies for the analysis. The study found that in the poor socio-economic context of India, social entrepreneurs can reproduce social capital and sustain an organisation if they follow the 'enabling leadership' style. However, another leadership style, the benevolent dictator generate dependency among the poor and create risks to the sustainability of an organisation.