If you are doing Reciprocal link building then it can be same but some one giving you link without asking you return link than it will not be same.
as if we get link from doing social marketing , press release .. are these not called Inbound linking??
they are same when one gives the link in return for link to there site... they are not same when they give link to your site with no return link...
No they are not the same. Inbound links that link to you one way are more valuable for SEO purposes. Reciprocal links don't carry as much weight because the search engine can see you simply exchanged links. There for it is not seen as much as a vote of confidence as in the case with the one way inbound link.