Capital social y desempeño empresarial: La industria metalmecánica en Ciudad Juárez, México

In this paper three components of social capital (collaboration, trust and reciprocity) on the local metalworking industry are analyzed. These components relate to contribute to the coordination on transmission of information from agents. The processes, for innovation and technological development locally and inter-business administrative management through inter-firm collaboration are analyzed. The statistical data analyzed comes from the application of a survey of 45 companies from the local metalworking. The indicators of the components are not very high but they have great potential as precursors of the local business performance. Trust is the weakest element in the analysis. Usually distrusts of agents who do not represent the companies in the industry and in particular the government. Reciprocity suggests low quality and quantity of contact between agent and industry, as well as low or almost zero frequency among agents. High levels of relational capital is recognized, however they are not factors that affect the local industrial performance. It is important to design public policies to improve the components of social capital through perspectives "bottom-up". A “critical” variable that show low levels of social capital, is the effect of insecurity and violence experienced by the region for some time.