Harnessing social transformation for community development: The role of social capital in community-based ecotourism

This research investigates the relationship between social capital, social transformation and community-based ecotourism (CBE) in Malaysian communities. Focusing on trust, social networks, reciprocity and social norms, the study examines whether social transformation functions as an intervening community-level process through which selected dimensions of social capital are associated with CBE development. Data was collected from 318 local community members engaged in CBE and analysed using PLS-SEM. The findings show the significant role of trust and social networks in fostering social transformation, while reciprocity and social norms were found to have no significant effects. Social networks were also found to have a significant effect on CBE, whereas trust, reciprocity and social norms do not. Additionally, social transformation is positively associated with CBE and significantly mediates the relationships of trust and social networks with CBE. This study contributes to the literature by showing that social capital does not operate uniformly across dimensions. This was achieved by positioning social transformation as a theoretically specified process that links relational community resources to CBE outcomes within the Malaysia context.