Social capital is important for organizational performance, but it can be a challenge for new firms to establish exchange relationships. While studies have focused on founder-level social ties and network effects on firm survival or performance, less attention has been given to the role of social capital within the community. We theorize that founder social ties are related to community social capital, which fosters varying levels of business opportunities. These relationships and business opportunities influence start-up survival. We test our hypotheses for a longitudinal cohort of new start-ups using Kauffman Firm Survey data merged with community social capital data. Our baseline model finds that a founder’s weak tie relationships—not strong ties—are associated with higher odds of start-up survival. Furthermore, we find that community-level social capital increases survival odds, particularly for founders who receive funding from weak-tie networks. Our study furthers our understanding of how community-level social engagement shapes founders’ social networks and firm survival odds through increased possibilities for exchange relationships.

社会资本对组织绩效很重要，但对于新公司来说，建立交换关系可能是一个挑战。虽然研究侧重于创始人层面的社会关系和网络对公司生存或绩效的影响，但对社会资本在社区中的作用的关注较少。我们推测，创始人的社会纽带与社区社会资本有关，社区社会资本促进了不同程度的商业机会。这些关系和商业机会会影响初创企业的生存。我们使用 Kauffman Firm Survey 数据与社区社会资本数据相结合，对新创业公司的纵向队列进行了假设。我们的基线模型发现，创始人的弱关系关系（而不是强关系）与初创企业的生存几率较高相关。此外，我们发现社区层面的社会资本增加了生存几率，特别是对于从弱关系网络获得资金的创始人而言。我们的研究进一步了解了社区层面的社交参与如何通过增加交换关系的可能性来塑造创始人的社交网络和公司的生存几率。