Social capital and innovation

A case study

Abstract

One of the most important innovation sources is external knowledge that firms can absorb and use in a strategic way, then the social capital is very relevant in the collaboration process. The aim of this paper is to analyze the technological development project called “La Quinta Fachada” held by the company Tejas el Águila and the Center for Research in Mathematics (CIMAT), in order to evaluate the role played by the social capital in the realization of this project. A qualitative research was carried out through in-depth interviews applied from March to May of 2011. Project participants were interviewed. The main findings were: social capital, especially trust and the top-manager level`s propension to innovate are very important to foster the success of entailment process.