IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/spr/sjobre/v76y2024i2d10.1007_s41471-024-00180-8.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Can We Measure the Structural Dimension of Social Capital with Digital Footprint Data?—An Assessment of the Convergent Validity of an Indicator Extracted from Digital Footprint Data

Author

Listed:
  • Michael Weiler

    (Goethe University Frankfurt)

  • Nora Jansen

    (Goethe University Frankfurt)

  • Oliver Hinz

    (Goethe University Frankfurt)

Abstract

Network analytical metrics often seek to capture the structural dimension of social capital, but such data collections using traditional social research tools often suffer from biases like interviewer effects and are usually only suitable to study small groups of participants. Digital sources of social relations might offer great potential for facilitating such measures though, because they digitally store unprecedented amounts of relational data, free from the limitations associated with self-reported data. This study therefore compares individual node degrees collected through a contact diary (i.e., overall-social capital), and a counterpart extracted from digital footprint data from the social media network, Facebook (i.e., social media network-social capital). The findings suggest that researchers conducting empirical studies involving the concept thus should not ignore social media network-social capital as a practical alternative measure of overall-social capital; it provides a sound approximation but only after controlling for other influential factors. In particular, our results highlight that the usability of the digital social capital metric is conditional on the three-way interaction between the variables gender, age, and social media network-social capital. Thus, the evidence from our study, in turn, also intimates that individuals act heterogeneously in the digital sphere with respect to their networking behaviour.

Suggested Citation

  • Michael Weiler & Nora Jansen & Oliver Hinz, 2024. "Can We Measure the Structural Dimension of Social Capital with Digital Footprint Data?—An Assessment of the Convergent Validity of an Indicator Extracted from Digital Footprint Data," Schmalenbach Journal of Business Research, Springer, vol. 76(2), pages 159-195, June.
  • Handle: RePEc:spr:sjobre:v:76:y:2024:i:2:d:10.1007_s41471-024-00180-8
    DOI: 10.1007/s41471-024-00180-8
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://link.springer.com/10.1007/s41471-024-00180-8
    File Function: Abstract
    Download Restriction: no

    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1007/s41471-024-00180-8?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Skiera, Bernd & Hinz, Oliver & Spann, Martin, 2015. "Social Media and Academic Performance: Does the Intensity of Facebook Activity Relate to Good Grades?," Publications of Darmstadt Technical University, Institute for Business Studies (BWL) 77139, Darmstadt Technical University, Department of Business Administration, Economics and Law, Institute for Business Studies (BWL).
    2. Bisbee, James & Larson, Jennifer M., 2017. "Testing Social Science Network Theories with Online Network Data: An Evaluation of External Validity," American Political Science Review, Cambridge University Press, vol. 111(3), pages 502-521, August.
    3. Rossana Mastrandrea & Julie Fournet & Alain Barrat, 2015. "Contact Patterns in a High School: A Comparison between Data Collected Using Wearable Sensors, Contact Diaries and Friendship Surveys," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 10(9), pages 1-26, September.
    4. Michael Lubatkin & John Florin & William S. Schulze, 2003. "A social capital model of high growth ventures," Post-Print hal-02311715, HAL.
    5. Trent A. Engbers & Michael F. Thompson & Timothy F. Slaper, 2017. "Theory and Measurement in Social Capital Research," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 132(2), pages 537-558, June.
    6. Michael Lubatkin & John Florin & William S. Schulze, 2003. "A social capital model of high growth ventures," Post-Print hal-02276699, HAL.
    7. Richard Williams, 2012. "Using the margins command to estimate and interpret adjusted predictions and marginal effects," Stata Journal, StataCorp LLC, vol. 12(2), pages 308-331, June.
    8. Li, Yongqiang & Wang, Xuehua & Huang, Lily & Bai, Xuan, 2013. "How does entrepreneurs' social capital hinder new business development? A relational embeddedness perspective," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 66(12), pages 2418-2424.
    9. Hinz, Oliver & Skiera, Bernd & Barrot, Christian & Becker, Jan, 2011. "Seeding Strategies for Viral Marketing: An Empirical Comparison," Publications of Darmstadt Technical University, Institute for Business Studies (BWL) 56543, Darmstadt Technical University, Department of Business Administration, Economics and Law, Institute for Business Studies (BWL).
    10. Tianshu Sun & Sean J. Taylor, 2020. "Displaying things in common to encourage friendship formation: A large randomized field experiment," Quantitative Marketing and Economics (QME), Springer, vol. 18(3), pages 237-271, September.
    11. Jansen, Nora & Hinz, Oliver, 2022. "Inferring opinion leadership from digital footprints," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 139(C), pages 1123-1137.
    12. Alexander Stetten & Daniel Beimborn & Tim Weitzel, 2012. "Analyzing and Managing the Impact of Cultural Behavior Patterns on Social Capital in Multinational IT Project Teams," Business & Information Systems Engineering: The International Journal of WIRTSCHAFTSINFORMATIK, Springer;Gesellschaft für Informatik e.V. (GI), vol. 4(3), pages 137-151, June.
    13. Valeriano Sanchez-Famoso & Amaia Maseda & Txomin Iturralde & Sharon M. Danes & Gloria Aparicio, 2020. "The potential of internal social capital in organizations: An assessment of past research and suggestions for the future," Journal of Small Business Management, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 58(1), pages 32-72, January.
    14. Oliver Hinz & Martin Spann, 2008. "The Impact of Information Diffusion on Bidding Behavior in Secret Reserve Price Auctions," Information Systems Research, INFORMS, vol. 19(3), pages 351-368, September.
    15. Alexander J.A.M. Van Deursen & Ellen J. Helsper & Rebecca Eynon, 2016. "Development and validation of the Internet Skills Scale (ISS)," LSE Research Online Documents on Economics 64485, London School of Economics and Political Science, LSE Library.
    16. Saxton, Gregory D. & Guo, Chao, 2020. "Social media capital: Conceptualizing the nature, acquisition, and expenditure of social media-based organizational resources," International Journal of Accounting Information Systems, Elsevier, vol. 36(C).
    17. Andrea Landherr & Bettina Friedl & Julia Heidemann, 2010. "A Critical Review of Centrality Measures in Social Networks," Business & Information Systems Engineering: The International Journal of WIRTSCHAFTSINFORMATIK, Springer;Gesellschaft für Informatik e.V. (GI), vol. 2(6), pages 371-385, December.
    18. Lenz, Gabriel S. & Sahn, Alexander, 2021. "Achieving Statistical Significance with Control Variables and Without Transparency," Political Analysis, Cambridge University Press, vol. 29(3), pages 356-369, July.
    19. Krasnova, Hanna & Veltri, Natasha & Eling, Nicole & Buxmann, Peter, 2017. "Why men and women continue to use social networking sites: The role of gender differences," Publications of Darmstadt Technical University, Institute for Business Studies (BWL) 87720, Darmstadt Technical University, Department of Business Administration, Economics and Law, Institute for Business Studies (BWL).
    20. Daniel Z. Levin & Rob Cross, 2004. "The Strength of Weak Ties You Can Trust: The Mediating Role of Trust in Effective Knowledge Transfer," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 50(11), pages 1477-1490, November.
    21. Arun Sundararajan & Foster Provost & Gal Oestreicher-Singer & Sinan Aral, 2013. "Research Commentary ---Information in Digital, Economic, and Social Networks," Information Systems Research, INFORMS, vol. 24(4), pages 883-905, December.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Michael Weiler & Oliver Hinz, 2019. "Without each other, we have nothing: a state-of-the-art analysis on how to operationalize social capital," Review of Managerial Science, Springer, vol. 13(5), pages 1003-1035, November.
    2. Rodrigo-Alarcón, Job & García-Villaverde, Pedro M. & Ruiz-Ortega, María J. & Parra-Requena, Gloria, 2018. "From social capital to entrepreneurial orientation: The mediating role of dynamic capabilities," European Management Journal, Elsevier, vol. 36(2), pages 195-209.
    3. Cowan, Robin & Sanditov, Bulat & Weehuizen, Rifka, 2011. "Productivity effects of innovation, stress and social relations," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 79(3), pages 165-182, August.
    4. Jansen, Nora & Hinz, Oliver, 2022. "Inferring opinion leadership from digital footprints," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 139(C), pages 1123-1137.
    5. Florian Probst & Laura Grosswiele & Regina Pfleger, 2013. "Who will lead and who will follow: Identifying Influential Users in Online Social Networks," Business & Information Systems Engineering: The International Journal of WIRTSCHAFTSINFORMATIK, Springer;Gesellschaft für Informatik e.V. (GI), vol. 5(3), pages 179-193, June.
    6. Shao, Yan & Sun, Lingxia, 2021. "Entrepreneurs’ social capital and venture capital financing," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 136(C), pages 499-512.
    7. Irina Heimbach & Oliver Hinz, 2018. "The Impact of Sharing Mechanism Design on Content Sharing in Online Social Networks," Information Systems Research, INFORMS, vol. 29(3), pages 592-611, September.
    8. Li, Dan, 2013. "Multilateral R&D alliances by new ventures," Journal of Business Venturing, Elsevier, vol. 28(2), pages 241-260.
    9. de Camargo Fiorini, Paula & Roman Pais Seles, Bruno Michel & Chiappetta Jabbour, Charbel Jose & Barberio Mariano, Enzo & de Sousa Jabbour, Ana Beatriz Lopes, 2018. "Management theory and big data literature: From a review to a research agenda," International Journal of Information Management, Elsevier, vol. 43(C), pages 112-129.
    10. Enrico Santarelli & Hien Tran, 2013. "The interplay of human and social capital in shaping entrepreneurial performance: the case of Vietnam," Small Business Economics, Springer, vol. 40(2), pages 435-458, February.
    11. Bozeman, Barry & Mangematin, Vincent, 2004. "Editor's introduction: building and deploying scientific and technical human capital," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 33(4), pages 565-568, May.
    12. Watson, John, 2007. "Modeling the relationship between networking and firm performance," Journal of Business Venturing, Elsevier, vol. 22(6), pages 852-874, November.
    13. Chong Kyoon Lee & Griffin W. Cottle & Sharon A. Simmons & Johan Wiklund, 2021. "Fear not, want not: Untangling the effects of social cost of failure on high-growth entrepreneurship," Small Business Economics, Springer, vol. 57(1), pages 531-553, June.
    14. Williams, Christopher, 2024. "Peacebuilding by MNE subsidiaries: The role of intangible capital and local initiative," Business Horizons, Elsevier, vol. 67(6), pages 711-725.
    15. Tatiana S. Manolova & Nancy M. Carter & Ivan M. Manev & Bojidar S. Gyoshev, 2007. "The Differential Effect of Men and Women Entrepreneurs’ Human Capital and Networking on Growth Expectancies in Bulgaria," Entrepreneurship Theory and Practice, , vol. 31(3), pages 407-426, May.
    16. Criaco, Giuseppe & van Oosterhout, J. (Hans) & Nordqvist, Mattias, 2021. "Is blood always thicker than water? Family firm parents, kinship ties, and the survival of spawns," Journal of Business Venturing, Elsevier, vol. 36(6).
    17. Julie L. Hotchkiss & Anil Rupasingha & Thor Watson, 2022. "In-migration and Dilution of Community Social Capital," International Regional Science Review, , vol. 45(1), pages 36-57, January.
    18. Chuang, Shu-Hui & Lin, Hong-Nan, 2013. "The roles of infrastructure capability and customer orientation in enhancing customer-information quality in CRM systems: Empirical evidence from Taiwan," International Journal of Information Management, Elsevier, vol. 33(2), pages 271-281.
    19. Patel, Pankaj C. & João Guedes, Maria & Pagano, Michael S. & Olson, Gerard T., 2020. "Industry profitability matters: The value of sustainable growth rate and distance from bankruptcy as enablers of venture survival," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 114(C), pages 80-92.
    20. Walter, Jorge & Lechner, Christoph & Kellermanns, Franz W., 2007. "Knowledge transfer between and within alliance partners: Private versus collective benefits of social capital," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 60(7), pages 698-710, July.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:spr:sjobre:v:76:y:2024:i:2:d:10.1007_s41471-024-00180-8. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Sonal Shukla or Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.springer.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.