Various types of social capital facilitate the creation of intralocal or interlocal economic development partnerships because it reduces the transaction costs that lead to collective action problems. Prior studies have focused on explaining how collective action mechanisms lead to the creation of economic development partnerships. While multidimensional social capital plays a dynamic role in promoting economic development activities within and across communities, the underlying complexity of multidimensional social capital remains unexplored in prior studies. This study creates a typology presenting various dimensions of social capital and tests the effects of multidimensional social capital on different economic development partnerships. Results indicate that different dimensions of social capital contribute to creating economic development partnerships regardless of local boundaries.

The literature indicates that social capital plays a crucial role in facilitating collective action in collaborative governance. Despite this important role, the extant literature has not systematically conceptualized what forms of social capital exist in the context of collaborative activities and when and where such social capital contributes to the effectiveness of collaborative regimes. Reviewing the role of social capital as addressed by prior studies, this article advances a theoretical lens to assess how social capital fosters collaborative governance. Specifically, multiple forms of social capital can help participants to achieve collaborative goals throughout sequential phases and substantive arenas of collaboration.

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To better understand the implementation of investments aimed at producing sustainable food systems across rural counties in Appalachia, particularly during the early phase of the movement, this study explores the perceptions of fifteen organizations that received grant funding. Studying local food systems is of interest because they have the unique characteristic of encompassing multiple aspects of social impact investing, including goals that may be seen as important to Appalachian communities: farming practices that benefit the environment, economic sustainability for local residents, and building the capacity of local organizations. Although grants may provide opportunities to make significant headway toward community economic and social goals, establishing the appropriate relationships may be a challenge for local organizations. Thus the goal of this research is to gain insight into how the grantees used various relationships among community-based organizations (i.e., businesses and farmers, educational institutions, government agencies, intermediary organizations and non-profits) and leveraged different types of capital (i.e., financial, informational, material, and giving capital) in the effort to establish a local food system within Appalachia.

This research explores the role of political ideology in local policy formation by assessing the impact of the city manager's ideology on local expenditures. While previous studies have identified nuanced and overlapping roles between administration and politics, here we extend those investigations by positing that ideology may influence a manager's role in the policy formation of the budget. Although some conceptualizations of city managers assume them to be largely apolitical in a partisan sense, we find a significant effect of ideology on local expenditures among city managers. This adds to the literature that suggests that city managers may not merely passively implement policies created by elected officials; rather city managers may influence policy in multifaceted ways, thereby driving a need to further investigate individual influences upon policy formation.