مجله مدیریت سرمایه اجتماعی
سال نهم شماره 3 (پاییز 1401)

Recent Local and global studies unanimously recognize the significance of social capital in resolving the challenges of public education in post-Pandemic era. The majority of these studies confirm the increasing and decreasing effect of social capital on the educational community. The present paper has looked at this phenomenon from a new perspective and has sought to investigate the effect of language teaching on the promotion of social capital. To this end, adopting a phenomenological approach, we sought an in-depth and critical understanding of the positive effect of foreign language teaching on the development of Iranian teachers' social capital. The premise was that teachers would use their foreign language learning knowledge, skills, and attitudes – from among the available factors – to improve their and their audiences’ social capital. To collect data, eleven public school teachers serving in the state-run schools of Tehran participated in responding to the questionnaires and attending a semi-structured interview. To validate the data, 9 expert professors in the field of teacher training were selected through purposive sampling, whose ideas were sought up to the theoretical saturation level. Then, the collected data were transcribed, coded, and analyzed. As a result of the data analysis, “the overall model of the effectiveness of teaching foreign languages on the improvement of teachers’ social capital” emerged in the form of the three categories of individual effect, group-organizational effect, and social and supra-organizational effect, along with 18 main themes and 57 sub-themes. Based on the results of the analysis, the direct and indirect effects of foreign language teaching and learning on strengthening the social capital of teachers appeared in five arenas, namely promoting scientific and cultural participation; developing social network; promoting the sense of individual, collective, and national security; adopting self-initiation in empowerment and promotion of individual-professional identity; and promoting the intercultural and transnational awareness. Based on the attained results, it is suggested that the teachings and concerns of foreign language teaching related to the enhancement and improvement of teachers’ social capital should be observed in order to compensate for the challenges of education during the Pandemic – especially in training new teachers and in-service training courses. Moreover, these teachings and concerns need to be regarded in planning, policymaking, and evolution of the curriculum.

The main purpose of this study was designing a social capital model in agreement with the Twenty-Year Vision Document and the Resistance Economy general policies to be used by the public organizations of Iran through a case study on the Iran Ministry of Roads & Urban Development. Using mixed-methods approach, this study tried to identify the various dimensions of the foregoing model. The statistical population included the advisors and top managers of the Iran Ministry of Roads & Urban Development who were familiar with this topic. From among these, 14 individuals were selected through snowball sampling up to the point of theoretical saturation. In the qualitative phase of the study, library research and semi-structured interviews were used to collect data, while thematic analysis was used to analyze the collected data. In the quantitative phase, the statistical population was comprised of 360 full-time employees of the Iran Ministry of Roads & Urban Development. Using Cochran’ formula, the optimal sample size was determined to be 186 participants. After randomly selecting the participants, the questionnaire derived from the qualitative phase was distributed among them. To analyze the data, the structural equations and PLS software were used. As for the results, the general model was presented in the two modes of standardized beta coefficient and significance values. Then, the convergent validity, composite reliability, Cronbach's alpha, and model fit indices of the model were examined and confirmed. Ultimately, 8 dimensions, 20 components, and 69 indices were extracted for the suggested model. In addition to the relational, structural, and cognitive dimensions that exist in most social capital models, the political, religious, institutional, and cultural dimensions have also been investigated in some studies. However, the economic strategies have not been examined in any previous models, so it is regarded the innovation of this study.

Social capital has an important role in the attraction of customers and presentation of a favorable image of the brand and services. Since service enterprises are directly judged by their customers, any move to increase the social capital of the company influences the rate of customer attraction. On the other hand, having business intelligence and using collective knowledge act as two wings of creating competitive advantages for the companies. This competitive advantage can be manifested in the form of organizational agility and increased effectiveness index of the employees of service companies (e.g., banks). Therefore, the study at hand was carried out to examine the effect of social capital and collective knowledge on business intelligence and organizational agility. The statistical population of the study was comprised of 120 employees of Melli Bank branches in Zahedan City. The data collection instruments included organizational agility, social capital, business intelligence, and collective knowledge creation questionnaires. The findings of study showed significant relationships among the variables under study in Melli Bank branches. The obtained results demonstrated the positive significant effect of business intelligence on the organizational agility. Moreover, it was revealed that social capital does not have an indirect effect on organizational agility through the mediating role of employee collective knowledge creation, but it has a positive significant effect on organizational agility through the mediating role of employee business intelligence. In addition, the collective knowledge creation was found to have a significant positive effect on organizational agility through the mediating role of employee business intelligence.

Asking the organizations to behave responsibly toward the society is an issue that has been increasingly affective on the building blocks of sustainable development (i.e., economy, society, and environment) in the last decades of the 20th century. This has led to the appearance of a concept called corporate social responsibility. This type of responsibility goes beyond economic and financial inquires and includes duties that are necessary for preserving, protecting, and helping the society. The purpose of this study was the examination of the conceptual structure of social responsibility research from 1975 to 2020. To this end, the analyses of co-word and social network data were used. The statistical population included 20168 documents indexed on the Web of Science database. The results showed that from among the 9442 keywords used in the documents, the top five highly frequent words have been corporate social responsibility, performance, management, CSR, and effect. The article “Strategy & Society” has been the most cited article (3527 citations), and Garcia Sanchez has been the top author in terms of document number (73 documents). The US is the top country in terms of the overall document number (4049 out of 20168). Moreover, the findings show that the “Journal of Business Ethics” has been the top publisher of articles in terms of document number (1496 articles), and “Copenhagen Business School” has been the top university in the world in terms of the number of documents (144 documents). The results of this study can provide researchers with a comprehensive outlook in their efforts to attain a deep understanding of the conceptual map of social responsibility research.

This research aimed at developing a social capital model based on Shahid Soleimani’s school of thought in the University of Tehran. It was applied-developmental in terms of purpose and descriptive-survey in terms of research method. Qualitative data were collected through semi-structured interviews with 21 scientific and administrative experts selected by purposive (judgmental) sampling, and quantitative data were collected through a questionnaire distributed among 410 employees of the University of Tehran. Thematic analysis was used to analyze the qualitative data, and structural equation modeling was adopted to analyze the quantitative data. After interview transcription, 214 keywords and 93 basic themes were extracted which were classified into 19 organizing themes. Finally, content categorization yielded 5 global themes. According to the results, the social capital model based on Shahid Soleimani school has five main dimensions, namely human capital with 4 components, interactive capital with 3 components, cultural capital with 4 components, identity capital with 5 components, and ethical capital with 3 components. The quantitative part of the results confirmed the developed model and relations.

The purpose of this study was examining the relationship between social capital and students’ educational success. This descriptive-correlational study was applied in terms of purpose. The statistical population was comprised of 2093 female secondary high school students in Kuhdasht City in the 2021-2022 educational year. Using Cochran’s formula, the optimal sample size was determined to be 324 participants. The participants were then selected through cluster sampling. A standardized questionnaire was used to collect data. The results showed that the social capital of female high school students in Kuhdasht is at an intermediate level. Social relations and social participation had a weak significant relationship with the educational success of female students. However, social trust and social cohesion did not have any significant relationship with the educational success of the female students at secondary high schools of Kuhdasht city. The regression analysis results indicated that the adjusted coefficient of determination under social capital scales predicted only .01 percent of the educational success variance. Taking into account P and T values, it was revealed that except for the social relations component, the other components are not at a favorable significance level.