Bridging and bonding social capital and their effects on internationalisation: an empirical study of international ‘take-off’ in Chinese SMEs

This paper is concerned with the role of social capital in effecting international take-off in Chinese SMEs. Social capital is posited as having different forms; a local bonding dimension and an international bridging dimension which spans structural holes between local networks and international opportunities. However, each of these forms is explored as having further constraining and enabling effects. This paper reports the results of a first phase investigation into 16 Chinese SMEs that have gone through the international take-off process. Interim findings suggest two stages in take-off, opportunity search and value proposition development. Initial findings report some previously under discussed constraining effects of international bridging social capital which include the constraint of non-exclusive international bridges, and the local peer pressure to continue to seek further international bridges, rather than focus on strengthening an initial bridge. Findings contribute to the strand of internationalisation literature positing the importance of network insidership in internationalisation and internationalisation as a by-product of entrepreneurial networking activities.