The existing multi-faceted notion of social capital is insufficient to analyze the behavior of a type of community whose boundary and exclusionary membership are clearly delineated. Conventional approaches to social networks, moreover, are fraught with the inability to deal with hierarchies, weak nodes or lack of precise wiring diagrams. Drawing on the prospering examples of Toyota’s supply chain and China’s Wenzhou entrepreneurial networks, this paper proposes “community capital” as an alternative limited concept of middle range. Well-functioning communities are apt to foster community capital as an exclusionary property of their own. The process proceeds in a cyclical manner. “Commensurate trust” emerges as a consequence of shared success experiences “imprinted” on the minds of community members, which in turn induces them to collaborate through “quasi-ties” with or without prior acquaintance. Once thus established, successful communities are likely to be embedded in distinctive community capital. As this process cycles it entails on the part of the community members acceptance, co-engagement, solidarity, and reinforcement learning.
