Social Capital as a Determinant Factor of Software Development Productivity: An Empirical Study Using Structural Equation Modeling

Social capital is an important network based intangible asset with a potential for maximizing individual and team productivity in a social setting like software development. It is important to investigate intervening factors that challenge software development productivity. In this paper, the authors mixed method approach harnesses a structural equation model (SEM) for its quantitative part to establish a paradigm for understanding the effects of social factors for software development organizations. The proposed SEM model measures the correlations between several potential factors associated with productivity, social productivity, and social capital that are chosen as latent variables. For the qualitative phase, an industrial focus group is used to single out these factors and their association with potential social aspects. Quantitative data is gathered from a survey conducted at a university. The qualitative phase encompasses an industrial focus group, initially starting with the factors from the literature and refined through participants’ field experience. Findings indicate that a high correlation exists between several social factors that are reported by the focus group. Finally, initial results suggest that understanding the factors that affect social capital in software development is essential for building and sustaining highly productive development environments.