Resumo

While there is extensive literature about the role of alcohol in contexts that includes the social and political aspects of production and consumption, use in religious practices, and impact on individual and group experiences, and there are some researchers that argues that social capital is associated with drinking alcohol, no references were found about practical studies that verify if alcohol drinking intentions and frequency are associated with the leverage of individual social capital. The research gap is more pronounced when it comes to entrepreneurial activities.

This article has sought to answer two fundamental questions that have been little explored in the literature: specifically, if alcohol is used to leverage individuals’ social capital, among entrepreneurs and non-entrepreneurs, and if the individual's social capital affects the frequency of drinking. The central objective is to test the hypothesis if alcohol is used to leverage individuals’ social capital among entrepreneurs and non-entrepreneurs, and if there is a significant difference between alcohol and social capital among entrepreneurs and non-entrepreneurs.

Alcohol is a vigorous force that constructs social life, establishes linkages between various components in a society, and defines social boundaries and identity (Wang & Liu, 2022). As alcohol consumption plays an important role in the individual level of social capital, it ought to have a significant effect on entrepreneurial activities as well (Cai & Zhao, 2016), which may be different from entrepreneurs and non-entrepreneurs, due to the essential role for entrepreneurs and also for the differences in the different cultures (Utomo et al., 2022).

A probabilistic survey was carried out with 300 alcohol adopters in Belo Horizonte, Brazil, and Hanoi, Vietnam. The alcohol social capital indicator and logistics regression, here developed, measure and compare the variables influencing drinking intention. The indicator was created with support from the Likert-scale questions. Based on the data provided by the indicator, it was possible to carry out the Levene’s and t-tests to verify if alcohol is used to leverage individual social capital and if there are significant differences between entrepreneurs and non-entrepreneurs.

This article allows a more integrated understanding of variables influencing drinking intention, in particular the need to maintain and enlarge social networks that provide access to influence and power, showing that entrepreneurs have significantly higher alcohol social capital levels, indicating a significant impact on entrepreneurship. This finding confirms that the level of social capital differs between entrepreneurs and non-entrepreneurs due to its importance to entrepreneurs, and it also varies according to drinking behavior in different cultures (Gong et al., 2022).

Field evidence allows us to conclude that: i) Alcohol drinking plays an important role in the individual level of social capital, used as a means to achieve and leverage resources, expand networks, define social boundaries, and gain power and influence, especially for entrepreneurs that have a higher degree of individual social capital. ii) Regarding the frequency to drink, all the factors investigated have affected the drinking level, except the group norms, which, besides having a positive rate on drinking intention, have no significative influence on drinking frequency in the two samples.

Cai, W., & Zhao, H. (2016). Verification for Mediating Effect of Informal Finance between Social Capital and Entrepreneurship: Empirical Analysis Based on China's Provincial Panel Data. Available at SSRN 2759411. Utomo, S. H., Narmaditya, B. S., Wibowo, A., Ali, A., & Sahid, S. (2022). Social capital and entrepreneurial intention among Indonesia rural community. Journal of Eastern European and Central Asian Research (JEECAR), 9(4), 665-679. Wang, J., & Liu, L. (2022). Introduction: Alcohol, rituals, and politics in the ancient world, Journal of Anthropological Archaeology, 65, 101397.