The concept of social capital has recently emerged as a paradigm in social sciences. It builds on the assumption that network embeddedness can be a source of advantage for both individuals as well as corporate actors. Originating in sociology, social capital has also found its way into management studies. The aim of this paper is to introduce the different concepts of social capital, to describe and to evaluate the state-of-the-art of applications in business research, and to develop a conceptual framework for an integrated theory of social capital. As a result, a significant contribution of social capital theory and related empirical studies in the field of business research can be observed. Nevertheless, further research is needed to develop a theory which connects the different concepts of social capital. Moreover, a closer link between relational and attribute-based explanations is required.