The relationship of social and human capital with decision making: an empirical study in information technology industry

To find solutions to the problems they encounter, individuals try to make the most effective decision that is in their best interests by employing their individual experiences and social relations. Similarly, managers aim to make the right choices and effective decisions that are in the best interests of their organizations by using their social and human capital. Examination of the literature on the impact of social and human capital on decision making indicates that previous studies focus on various aspects of decision-making behavior, such as the knowledge and experience of the decision maker, the rationality of decision, rational decision preferences, and the most effective choice preferences among limited number of decision options. Examination of the literature on social and human capital also indicates that previous studies investigate different aspects of these concepts. Among the topics investigated are the impact of social capital on economic life, on the access to information, on creating new information, and the dimensions, directions, and qualifications of social capital relations. The aim of this study is to understand the effects of social and human capital in decision making behavior of senior top managers in the fast changing IT sector and to identify their decision choices in the face of different circumstances (e.g., routine vs. non-routine), different problems (e.g., programmed vs. non-programmed), different type of decisions (e.g., corporate-strategic vs. managerial-operational), and different dimensions of social capital (e.g., internal-external, horizontal-vertical, micro-macro, and strong-weak). Human capital is defined by individual's (managers') experiences, practices and skills. To achieve the above study aim, a quantitative study was carried out and the centralized position of actors (e.g., at the center or far from the center) in the relevant network mechanism was determined. Following this quantitative study, a qualitative study was carried out through semi-structured interviews in order to conduct an in-depth analysis of decision making behavior preferences. This study contributes to the literature by providing a better understanding of the impact of social relations on decision-making and determining the boundaries of established relationships in decision-making behaviors under different circumstances as described above, which should help new researchers better define their study variables and develop research models related to decision-making behavior. Key Words: Social capital, human capital, decision making, social network, information technology sector