An Empirical Study of the Effect of Entrepreneurial Social Capital on the Mobilization of Financial Resources: The Case of Moroccan SMEs

Abstract

This research study investigates the links between an entrepreneur’s social capital and access to financial resources. Using a conceptual framework derived from the theoretical and empirical literature on social capital in the field of entrepreneurship, our research aims to identify the aspects of social capital that can facilitate access to these resources, taking into account the moderating effects of market uncertainty on this relationship. A questionnaire survey of 41 Moroccan SMEs allowed us to operationalize the dimensions of social capital and to test their influence on access to financial resources. The results of the research show that social capital has some influence on access to financial resources, particularly the two variables “size” and “diversity” of the entrepreneur’s relational network. On the other hand, our study reveals that environmental uncertainty does not have a moderating effect on this relationship.