External Social Capital: The Case of Food Firms

Resources that individual members of a collectivity can potentially access or actually mobilize through external relationships are called external social capital (Leana & Pil, 2006) [11]. External social capital is the quality of an enterprise's network of relationships with external partners (Dai et al., 2015) [4]. In recent years, Vietnam's food processing industry has achieved important achievements, contributing greatly to economic growth and implementing the mission of ensuring to meet domestic food demand while aiming to serve exports. The aim of the study is to examine the external social capital of food firms in Hanoi and some neighboring provinces. External social capital consists of five observed variables (scales). A quantitative research approach and a cross-sectional research design were adopted in the study. Primary data on 156 employees was collected from food firms in Hanoi, Hungyen, Haiduong, Bacgiang, and Vinhphuc. The results show that the external social capital of food firms is rated quite high; however, food firms should have measures to improve external social capital. The study is based on the results of previous studies, food business practices, and the Vietnamese context with recent changes related to the food market. Based on the research results, we present recommendations for food firms.