Role of Social Capital in The Career Advancement of Young Business Graduates in China

Citation

Li, Yanna. (2017). Role of social capital in the career advancement of young business graduates in China. (Independent study, Master of Business Administration). Bangkok: Siam University.

Abstract

The intention of this study is to explore the role of social capital in the career advancement of young business graduates in china and how that can help the youngsters to start or advance their career. The research basically aims to find the relationship between social capital and career advancement of young business graduates in china. The social capital is analyzed through three independent variables namely Family Networking, Friends Networking and Professional Networking. Social capital is not the similar kind of capital (e.g. economic, human resource capital) to produce products and services in the business world but rather it is of a different kind. Social capital is the capital that is possessed through family, formal and informal relationships with the wider community, society and inside and outside of the social span of an individual or inside or outside an organization through peer relationships and relationships with suppliers and buyers. This research is based on the theory of Coleman (1988) because that theory provides the actual foundation for the hypothesis of this research in a more logical way than any other theory on social capital.But the conceptual framework of this study was guided by Coleman (1990), Bourdieu (1985) and Lin (1999). The research was quantitative in nature and the data was collected from the 251business bachelor degree students of three universities of china namely: Guangxi University, Guangxi University of Finance and Economics and Guangxi University for nationalities through judgmental sampling. The data was then analyzed through the SPSS spearman and Pearson correlation. It was found at the end that respondents were much sure about getting help from their immediate family than any outsider; therefore two-thirds of them chose more than 50% category regarding the close family being helpful. It is quite contrast when they were asked about getting help from professional networking, most of them almost similar in number as above chose less than 50% category. But when asked regarding the classmates being the helpful source for career advancement, the most respondents gave mixed responses but there were one-third of them who chose less than 50% category. Interestingly, when asked about the connections with top management by family close relatives and the friends, the more responses were less than 50%. Finally, when inquired from the participants regarding the professional networking through formal and informal events being helpful, the more responses were less than 50%, share of those events in career advancement, but with the exception of connections being made during the internship where the contribution could went upto 75%. It was indicated at the end that there is a relationship between family, friends and professional networking and the social capital in China, although the friends and professional networking have weak relationship with the social capital but, the family networking got moderate influence on the social capital than the other two. However, surprisingly, the whole three when combined has also found to be correlated with the notion of social capital.

Keywords:  Social Capital, Family Networking, Friends Networking, Relationship, Quantitative, Business Graduates.

Role of Social Capital in The Career Advancement of Young Business Graduates in China

International Master in Business Administration (IMBA), Siam University, Bangkok, Thailand