A study in the association between social capital and people's involvement in the tourism context: A working paper

The purpose of the study was to identify the instrument of the social capital in the tourism context and to examine whether the social capital influences on people's involvement in the tourism context. A literature survey was carried out, and expert consultation was employed to develop this working paper. The study focuses on the association between Social Capital and People’s Involvement in the tourism context. With the help of the literature survey and experts’ consultation, the association between social capital and people’s involvement was investigated. Accordingly, there were four indicators of social capital identified in the literature namely; Bonding Social Capital (BSC), Social Bridging Capital (SBC), Social Linking Capital (SLC), and Social Harmful Capital (SHC).In addition, two independent variables were identified such as People's Involvement(PEI) and involvement in the Decision Making and Problem Solving (DMPS). The literature evidenced that there are associations between SC and PI in the tourism context. This includes BSC, SBC, SLC, and SHC having a positive association with PEI and DMPS of tourism involvers. Accordingly, this study suggested a conceptual model for testing eight hypotheses to examine the association between social capital and people’s involvement. Further, this study recommends an empirical study through Explorative Factor Analysis and Confirmatory Factor Analysis to develop valid and reliable instruments to measure the SC in the tourism context. A path model is suggested to examine whether social capital influences people's involvement in the tourism context.