Resumo

ARRAS VOTA, Ana María; HERNANDEZ RODRIGUEZ, Ofelia Adriana  e  LOPEZ DIAZ, Julio César. Redes y confianza: dimensiones del capital social en las microempresas rurales en Chihuahua, México. Nueva antropol [online]. 2012, vol.25, n.77, pp.31-57. ISSN 0185-0636.

This article presents five cases of microenterprises that have constructed social capital form a high cohesive net sustained in trust. Through this net the participants coordinate their efforts as a strategy of organizational innovation. In this group knowledge is transferred between their members, they have accompanied each other in the process of the growth of their microenterprises, presenting their products in national fairs, and they support each other in negotiations with public agencies that can support them with advice and counseling, among other services, which give them the opportunity to face today's challenges, such as insufficient work capital, finding markets for their products, competition, rising prices of inputs, decreasing consumer income, and cash flow problems to be able to position their products in supermarkets. This research visualizes the enterprise from the systemic perspective and as a collectivity of capabilities. It also presents the social capital concept with its dimensions: structural, relational and of codes. Also, the focus of the analysis is supported by the perspective that considers social relations as a good through which one has a possibility to access quality resources.

Palavras-chave : social capital; knowledge networks; confidence; strategy.