Social capital, research and development, and innovation: an empirical analysis of Spanish and Italian regions created by Jose M. Barrutia and Carmen Echebarria

Innovation theories have identified and explained the antecedents of innovation outcomes. Theories have moved on from explaining innovation outcomes in terms of individual research and development (R&D) efforts to include social capital. Although conceptual support for the relevance of social capital as an antecedent of innovation outcomes seems persuasive, measurement and quantitative evidence are scarce. We contribute to filling this gap by empirically testing the role of social capital as a driver of the relationship between R&D expenditure and innovation outcomes in the context of the Spanish and Italian regions. As there is no consensus on how to measure social capital, we use two different approaches: a rational choice-driven approach and a sociologically driven approach. The results of both approaches are controversial, in that they are different, unclear and almost in opposition, but this should not be interpreted as an argument for abandoning all efforts to quantify the role of social capital.