This book analyzes the social capital of the growing knowledge economy, from both theoretical and empirical points of view. The theoretical section discusses social capital as an economic concept, developing a theory of the social capital of the enterprise. The empirical section compares aspects of the social capital of three different socio-economic systems: the US, Japan and Sweden. The book discusses a number of issues for further research.

Résumé
It is possible that there once was a time when scholars used to sit isolated with their cogitations in their attics, emerging now and then to publish their latest e- dite offerings which no one had ever thought of before. If such a time did once - ist, it certainly does so no longer. Writing a scientific or scholarly book in our era is to a large extent a team effort in which your team members are continually changing and you are unceasingly grateful for the privilege of enjoying and be- fiting from the exertions, ideas, comments and support of a large number of very able people. Scientific and scholarly work nowadays is a process impossible wi- out the existence and use of social capital. This book is no exception to the above stated. There are very many colleagues (some of them referees and thus anonymous) and friends who have made the book possible. The foremost of these is Roger Bolton, with whom I wrote my first paper on social capital. Most of that paper has found its way into various passages of this book, while Chapter 6, Social Capital and Entrepreneurship, comes almost c- pletely from Roger's pen. Thank you, Roger, for letting me use your text! The empirical studies of the biotech industries of Japan, California and Sweden would have been impossible without a great deal of help.

Contenu
Social Capital as an Economic Concept.- Social Capital as Capital in the Economic Sense.- Social Capital as a Spatial Externality.- The Social Capital of the Enterprise.- Social Capital and Entrepreneurship.- Social Capital and Innovation: Actors and Policies.- Why Compare Sweden, Japan and USA/California?.- Social Capital Expressed in the Form of Labor Market Relations.- Social Capital and Institutions for Growth, Innovation and Renewal.- Civil Society's Social Capital.- The Knowledge-Intensive Biotech Industry: Structures and Policies.- The Biotech Industry's Social Capital: An Empirical Study.- Some Forward Looking Comments.