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Women and Business Networking: A Social Capital View

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Gender Equality

Part of the book series: Encyclopedia of the UN Sustainable Development Goals ((ENUNSDG))

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Definition

This entry adopts the definition of networking as proposed by Singh et al. (2006) who summarize networking as activities by individuals attempting to develop and maintain relationships with those perceived to have the potential to assist them in their work or career. Activities constitute maintaining contacts, socializing, engaging in professional activities, participating in the community, and increasing internal visibility (Forret and Dougherty 2004).

Social capital is the value/benefits that one gets from one’s social relationships through networks – formal, informal, social, family, friends, professional, memberships, etc. It manifests as trust, norms, cooperation, information benefits, and power (Adler and Kwon 2002) in the network, influencing members’ actions to help each other. Networking helps build social capital that influences career advancement benefits (Alfred 2009; Zdroik and Babiak 2017). It connects people in a social network that provides value and...

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Bhandar, M. (2020). Women and Business Networking: A Social Capital View. In: Leal Filho, W., Azul, A.M., Brandli, L., Lange Salvia, A., Wall, T. (eds) Gender Equality. Encyclopedia of the UN Sustainable Development Goals. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-70060-1_32-1

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-70060-1_32-1

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