Friends and foes in the occupational career : the influence of sweet and sour social capital on the labour market

Abstract

Contemporary studies on the influence of social capital on the labour market have mainly focused on the positive side of social relationships - how people can help each other in their careers. This study adopts a different approach by also including the negative side of social relationships - how people can harm each other. Old questions regarding the positive side of social capital (sweet social capital as constituted by 'friends') are extended to the negative side of social capital (sour social capital as constituted by 'foes'). Furthermore some important improvements are made on earlier research, not only by including foes, but also by curing some methodological flaws. And some new questions regarding friends and foes on the labour market are asked and answered