Social capital and the Danish system of innovation

The paper explores the concept of social capital and applies it to the Danish national system of innovation. It is argued that social capital is important to the working of the national system of innovation, and that the way in which the concept of social capital informs the study of national systems of innovation is in accordance with fundamental contributions in the field. Reviewing a number of approaches to social capital, the paper shows that even though different views exist there seem to be a number of common features that will facilitate research both within individual fields and cross-disciplinary. Regarding the Danish national system of innovation, social capital plays an important role, and a number of features facilitating social capital prevail. However, a number of challenges are present and calling for political action and future research. The main argument of the paper is that social capital, both in a theoretical context and in the case of the Danish national system of innovation, is most easily conceptualised if we focus on the combination of bonding and bridging forms of social capital.