Capital social em redes de cooperção: um estudo de caso da AutoRede

Abstract

This study describes how the social networks of the entrepreneurs participating in the Cooperation Network AutoRede, in the municipality of Novo Hamburgo, are structured. More specifically, it describes how emerging relationship networks between entrepreneurs, and people belonging to their relational networks, are structured. This is a case study, in which a census was carried out. Qualitative and quantitative methods were used, in an evaluation process of information called triangulation. The principles of data triangulation and the triangulation method were used. From this approach, the structural relational and cognitive dimensions of social capital in AutoRede will be evaluated. The study focuses on patterns of network characterized by specific contents therein traded, namely, the networks of support or influence, friendship, information and trust. It analyzes the interrelationship of the dimensions of the social capital of AutoRede in order to present how these relations are built in the context of this specific network. Data analysis showed that the networks surveyed are sparse and that there are actors who concentrate the centrality when the content of the four networks traded are taken into account. Furthermore, the trust network is the smallest of all the networks studied, confirming the state postulated by the theory. The findings showed that the construction of the entrepreneur´s network is based on diversity of roles, with the relations being established, in their majority, as close or very close. What the findings also reveal is that the networks have a low reciprocity in relations. Finally, it was noticed that entrepreneurs have shared meanings, and those relating to the experience of participation in the network, and benefits obtained, are the most relevant. From the results, a roadmap was built in order to evaluate the generation of social capital in Cooperation Networks, which is the main contribution of this study.