The concept of social capital It can be analyzed from two perspectives: accounting and the sociology . As an accounting term, the share capital is the value of the assets or the money that the partners contribute to a company No right of return.
In this way, the share capital (which is recorded in an accounting item) grants to partners different rights according to their participation and assumes a guarantee against third parties. This is a stable figure, although the negative results can lead to bankruptcy and then the company will already have the necessary resources to meet its obligations to third parties.
It is important to establish in this sense that there is also what is known as minimum social capital. An east term with which comes to be defined to that capital that every company must keep at least. It is important to underline that this will be one or the other depending on the type of society that is, in this way a corporation must have a minimum social capital much higher than that of a limited liability company.
In another sense, social capital is a passive (debt) of the society in front of the partners. To modify this contribution, a series of legal procedures must be followed. It is possible to distinguish between the notions of social capital, social heritage (all assets and liabilities of the company) and net worth (the effective difference between assets and liabilities).
In addition to all of the above, we have to take into account that within a company, what is the extension of the share capital can take place. This is achieved through different actions or situations such as, for example, monetary contributions, non-monetary contributions, for the transformation of benefits or reserves as well as for compensation of loans against society.
In the same way, it is also possible for a specific company to suffer the reduction of its share capital. In this case, the circumstances that may lead to that fact are the return of contributions, the increase of the legal reserve, the remission of passive dividends or with the clear objective of eliminating losses.
The last mentioned event is decided to be carried out with the intention of recovering the balance between capital and net worth. Hence, this compensation of losses can be achieved either by reducing the accounting dimension of the company or through the benefits of the company.
For sociology, social capital is what enables the cooperation between two parties . The notion does not necessarily imply something positive, since contacts between people they can lead to negative events (such as mafia societies, for example).
In other words, social capital implies the sociability of a human group, with the aspects that allow collaboration and its use. Sociologists emphasize that social capital is formed by social networks, mutual trust and effective norms, three concepts that are not easy to define and that may vary according to the analyst's conception.
