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The sociological concept of social capital has grown in popularity in recent years and research programs in North America, Europe, and East Asia have demonstrated how social capital has a significant impact on occupational mobility, community building, social movement, and economic development. This book uses new empirical data to test how social capital works in different societies with diverse political-economic and cultural institutions. Taking a comparative approach, this study focuses on data from three different societies, China, Taiwan, and the United States, in order to reveal the international commonalities and disparities in access to, and activation of, social capital in labor markets. In particular, this book tests whether political economic and cultural differences between capitalist and socialist economic systems and between Western and Confucian cultures create different types of individual social networks and usages. This comparison leads to Joonmo Son's fundamental argument that the institutional constraints of a society's political economy on the one hand, and culture on the other, profoundly impact on both the composition and utilization of social capital. Based on rigorous statistical analysis, this book will be essential reading for students and scholars of social capital, economic sociology, and comparative politics.

Educational philosophers contend that education enhances autonomy and thus happiness, but empirical studies rarely explore the positive influence of education on happiness. Based on the previous finding that being better connected to the outside world makes people happy, this study examines the possibility that how well an individual connects to the world accounts for the positive association between education and happiness. Analyzing survey data from four East Asian countries, we find a common pattern among Japan, Taiwan and South Korea. Although both monetary and non-monetary factors play a role in explaining the relationship between education and higher reports of happiness, monetary factor is relatively unimportant whereas non-monetary factors, such as interpersonal network and degree of cosmopolitanism, account for a significant part of the association between education and happiness. China is exceptional due to its relative importance of personal income in accounting for happiness. In short, individuals who receive more education have more extensive social networks as well as greater involvement with the wider world; these life conditions are positively related with happiness. By enhancing one's ability and propensity to connect with the wider social world, education may improve an individual's subjective well-being.

Social networking sites (SNSs) have assumed an increasingly central role in the passage of electronic word-of-mouth (eWOM) among cosmetics users. However, the mechanism by which Customer to Customer (C2C) eWOM in SNSs influences consumer purchase intention has yet to be fully understood. This study develops a comprehensive research framework that focuses on the influence of C2C eWOM using information persuasion in reference to purchase decision making. This study collected data from a sample of 314 Taiwanese respondents, using paper-based questionnaires. The programs SPSS and Smart PLS were used to analyze the collected data. The results show that perceived persuasiveness, perceived informativeness, and source expertise are adequate predictors of the usefulness of eWOM. Additionally, perceived persuasiveness, source expertise, and source trustworthiness significantly predict the believability of eWOM with regard to SNSs. It was found that perceived usefulness and credibility together increase the likelihood of the adoption of an eWOM message, and eWOM adoption has a strong mediating role in the influence of eWOM credibility and usefulness on consumer purchase intention toward products recommended on SNSs. Since few previous studies have explored the mediating role of eWOM adoption on the influence of antecedents on consumer purchase intention, this study confirms the key mediating role exerted by eWOM adoption on the relationship between the usefulness and credibility of eWOM and purchase intention. This empirical study can enable managers to better understand the effects of C2C eWOM from SNSs on consumer purchase behavior. Our results should also encourage marketers to work with SNSs to develop viral marketing campaigns, encouraging customers to spread useful and credible C2C eWOM to improve purchase intentions.

Previous studies have documented the associations of objective class with either social capital or subjective social status, yet little attention has been paid to the direct connections between social capital and subjective social status. This study highlights social capital as an essential source of subjective social status, particularly in East Asia, whose member societies have shared similarities but also developed distinctive social and cultural contexts. We investigate how individuals differently perceive their own subjective social status by their social capital and hypothesize that such associations vary across four societies. By analyzing Chinese, Taiwanese, Korean, and Japanese samples of the 2012 East Asian Social Survey, we examine bonding, bridging, and cognitive dimensions of social capital and their connections to subjective perceptions of social status, after controlling for objective class measures. As hypothesized, the results underscore the varying patterns of the associations between social capital and subjective social status across four societies. For instance, individuals who develop wider social connections with people occupying highstatus occupations tend to rank themselves higher on a subjective social-status scale in Chinese societies only, where social connections particularly play an important role. Having trustworthy relatives and friends is associated with higher subjective social status in Taiwan and Korea, where members are less tolerant of ambiguity than China. None of the social capital measures matters in Japan, the most individualistic society in East Asia. The findings of this study improve our understandings of subjective social status by emphasizing individuals' embeddedness in social relationships and broader cultural contexts.

Does social capital, resources embedded in social relationships, influence health? This research examines whether social capital impacts depressive symptoms and overall perceived health status over and above the effects of social support. Our analyses use unique data from the Taiwan Social Change Survey collected in 1997, and measures social capital and social support through two network instruments (the position generator and the name generator). Results replicate the effects of social support, as measured through the name generator, on both outcomes. Results show that social capital, as measured through the position generator, has direct effects on both outcomes net of social support, while social support is a stronger predictor than social capital. This research indicates that social capital contributes to health beyond and distinct from the contribution of social support, and it suggests that social capital and social support are two independent relationship-based causes of disease which require different instruments of measurement.

This study seeks to understand the role of the Internet in quality of life (QoL). Specifically, it examines the question of whether Internet communication serves, like face-to-face interactions, to enhance quality of life. It is hypothesized that the use of the Internet for interpersonal communication can improve quality of life among Internet users, just like face-to-face communication in everyday life. Sample survey data were collected in four Chinese cities, namely Hong Kong, Taipei, Beijing, and Wuhan, to serve as replicates to test the hypothesis. The Satisfaction with Life Scale (SWLS) of Diener (1984) was used to measure quality of life in the four cities. It was found that contrary to our expectation, Internet communication cannot predict quality of life while face-to-face communication with friends and family members can. The result was the same across the four Chinese cities. Possible reasons for this finding are examined and discussed.

This paper examines how culture affects information asymmetry in financial markets. We extract firms traded in the United States but headquartered in regions sharing Chinese culture (“Chinese firms”), and we manually identify a group of U.S. analysts of Chinese ethnic origin (“Chinese analysts”). We find that Chinese analysts issue more accurate forecasts on Chinese firms than non-Chinese analysts. The effect is stronger among firms with less transparent information environments. Further evidence suggests that cultural proximity can go beyond language commonality and analysts’ pre-existing channels for information. Market reaction is stronger when Chinese analysts issue favorable forecast revisions or upgrades about Chinese firms.

Using five waves of the Taiwanese Longitudinal Study of Aging (1996-20II), we investigate (1) the association between family members' education and the age trajectories of individuals' depressive symptoms and (2) gender differences in those relationships. Our examination is guided by several theoretical frameworks, including social capital, social control, age as leveler, and resource substitution. Nested models show that having a more educated father is associated with lower depressive symptoms, but the relationship disappears after controlling for respondent's education. Including spouse's education attenuates the coefficient for respondent's education. A similar pattern appears when children's education is added to the model. Among all the family members, children's education has the strongest association with depressive symptoms, with a similar magnitude for both genders, although its strength gradually weakens as respondents age. Our findings suggest the importance of the transfer of resources from children to parents and how it may affect mental health at older ages.

Based on a nationwide survey dataset collected by Taiwan’s Executive Yuan (2017) (N = 2737) and adopting structural equation modelling with bootstrapped method, we confirm that citizens’ positive appraisal of liberal democracy can foster subjective wellbeing via political trust but find civic participation irrelevant in this model. The proposed model remains significant after age, education, residency and personal income are controlled. The only exceptions are the gender effects in the relationship between appraisal of liberal democracy and political trust and that between political trust and civic participation. The former is positively stronger for female, whereas the latter is negatively stronger for male. While civic participation has long been widely accepted as a foundational component of any consolidated democracy, empirical evidence of this study calls for reflection on the application of this notion in an East Asian setting.