INO Seminar

Seminar with PhD fellow Kristina Vaarst Andersen, Department of Innovation and Organizational Economics (INO)

You can’t take it with you: An analysis of the effects of social and human capital on performance

Based on panel data from the Danish film industry the paper analyzes the benefits of high levels of social and human capital in shaping performance of projects undertaken in an industry characterized by innovation and creativity. The data encompass information on project participants (education and social capital), film characteristics, and performance for all feature films published by the Danish film industry in the period from 1995 to 2005.

The analysis reveals that projects which are endowed with high levels of social capital also display a high level of performance in the local setting, whereas projects which are endowed with human capital display a high level of performance outside the local setting. These findings suggest that local consumers have acquired an appreciation for projects that are embedded in a local community with its distinct history and practice. Human capital, on the other hand, embeds projects in a more international, professionalized community of practice which appeals to an international panel of consumers.

The presented paper is part of a PhD project analyzing the effects of social networks for achieving high levels of performance in the film industry.