The mixed empirical results on the impact of social capital call for a better
understanding of the conditioning effect of contextual differences. We conducted a
meta-analysis to assess whether and how social capital functions similarly or differently
between China and the West. Both network centrality and the bridging of structural
holes are positively related to performance, but the impact of structural holes is not
significant in China. The findings suggest that network centrality is more effective than
the bridging of structural holes in China, whereas network centrality and the bridging of
structural holes both have a positive impact on performance in the West.
By
Hongjuan Zhang, Liang Wang, Rong Han