[EN] This paper analyzes and provides empirical evidence on how three different dimensions of social capital (structural, relational, and resources) have a direct causal relation on the performance of financial service start-ups. To this end, a structural equation model is estimated and validated from a database, including information from 142 Argentinean entrepreneurs who answered a questionnaire specifically designed for this research. The main finding of the paper is that the main source of value of social capital for an entrepreneur is the existence of high-quality links. Moreover, the quality of the entrepreneur's links is even more important than their quantity. This conclusion has relevant managerial and policy implications, since it suggests that entrepreneurs must focus their efforts not so much on increasing their number of contacts, but on establishing, developing, and enhancing a small number of high-quality links.

The authors thank both the Spanish Ministry of Science and Technology, and the European Feder Funds for financial support under projects SEJ2007-66581 and ECO-2010-20584