Multilevel challenges and opportunities in social capital research

Social capital refers to the resources derived from social relationships. Although the concept of social capital has been applied at the individual, group, and organizational levels of analysis, researchers have yet to fully embrace social capital's potential as a multilevel lens through which we might better understand management and organizational phenomena. With a central objective of advancing social capital's potential as a multilevel theoretical perspective, the authors make two contributions to the management literature. First, the authors comprehensively review two decades of management research to highlight how social capital has been empirically applied across levels of analysis. Second, based on the shortcomings and challenges revealed through the literature review, the authors identify and discuss avenues for future multilevel research, including suggestions for both macro and micro researchers.