Social trust and dynamics of capitalist economies in the context of clashing managerial factors with risks and severe turbulence: a conceptual inquiry

Abstract

Nowadays, in the context of a complex fragility that radically transforms the economic habitat, the cyclical evolution of the economy is governed by new rules and constraints that transcend the economic area and increasingly interfere with the socio-cultural features of life. In this context, the aim of this paper is to outline the conceptual domain of a new insight into the relationship between social and economic dimensions of life by summarizing and integrating two of the main groundbreaking and inspirational streams of thought—social trust and economic dynamics. To do so, we developed theoretical syntheses of the most important contributions documenting the nature of trust and business cycle; then, the much more recent ”niche” of the influence between them was placed under conceptual discussion. One of the more significant findings to emerge from this study is that the nature of the relationship between social trust and economic dynamics is still minimally explored and understood, and the research conducted thus far is mainly positioned in a macroeconomic perspective, combining quantitative and qualitative approaches that still leave many questions unanswered. However, the lack of a deep understanding of these influences launches new challenges for theoretical developments and creates the framework for an integrative understanding. These new insights can support more rigorous studies whose results could be of utmost importance for business organizations in addressing the problem of business sustainability, but also for economic decision-makers. At the macro level, economic crises are influencing the income distribution and are expected to exacerbate poverty, thus affecting progress towards Sustainable Development Goal 01 (No poverty).