Social Capital as a Microlevel Origin of Organizational Capabilities

The microlevel concept of social capital has received significant attention in management and sociological research but has not yet been empirically associated with the development of organizational capabilities. The major purpose of this paper is to investigate the relationship of social capital with marketing and research and development (R&D) capability and to explore how the environmental context moderates the social capital–organizational capability link. It is suggested that top management's social capital provides a firm with important information and control benefits that facilitate effective access to the knowledge and resources necessary for building superior organizational capabilities. In addition, we identify the role of two important environmental factors influencing the social capital–organizational capability link: technological turbulence and competitive intensity. The strength of the relationship between social capital and organizational capabilities is proposed to vary depending on the level of these two environmental characteristics. This study conceptualizes and operationalizes social capital as a multidimensional construct reflected by the structural dimension of tie strength, the relational dimension of trust, and the cognitive dimension of solidarity. Survey and archival data on 280 firms from various industries are analyzed using structural equation modeling. Empirical support for the proposed three‐dimensional structure of social capital is found. Results further indicate that social capital is a significant antecedent to both marketing and R&D capability, which in turn significantly affect firm performance. While a positive relationship between social capital and organizational capabilities is supported in general, the strength of this relationship depends on the environmental context the firm is embedded in. The positive effect of social capital on marketing capability increases in environments with high technological turbulence and competitive intensity; the opposite holds for R&D capability. This research contributes to the resource‐based view by introducing social capital as an important microlevel factor promoting the development of organizational capabilities. By identifying and evaluating two important environmental contingencies, our study also decreases some of the ambiguity surrounding the effectiveness of antecedents to organizational capabilities. The findings further help practitioners decide under what circumstances investing in top‐managers' social capital provides an effective means for achieving superior performance through enhanced organizational capabilities. This should have an important bearing on issues such as management training and incentives as well as on hiring policies.     

企业社会责任、社会资本与组织竞争优势:一个战略互动视角——基于中国转型期经验的实证研究

本文融合社会资本理论,构建了转型经济中企业社会责任影响组织竞争优势的理论框架,并运用151家中国企业的调查数据进行了实证检验。结果发现:企业社会责任与经济绩效之间不存在相关性,但与组织声誉正向相关,社会资本会明显强化企业社会责任的声誉效应。具体而言,等级制社会资本会显著促进企业社会责任与组织声誉的相关关系,而市场社会资本则限制了企业社会责任对组织声誉的贡献。本文从研究方法的跨层次风险、资源依赖的动态性和整合能力等方面进行了应用性的讨论,建议中国企业用基于社会资本的战略性社会责任超越慈善导向的社会责任,通过这种战略转型积聚组织竞争优势。     

PERSPECTIVE: The World's Top Innovation Management Scholars and Their Social Capital*

Using 959 articles reflecting the work of 1,179 scholars, this study ranks the world's top scholars in innovation management (IM) on the basis of the number of research articles published across 14 top academic journals in technology and innovation management, marketing, and management between 1990 and 2004. Twenty‐three scholars have at least eight articles in this period. Michael Song has the most (31), followed by Robert Cooper, Roger Calantone, William Souder, and Elko Kleinschmidt, who have published at least 17 articles in the 15‐year period. Surprisingly, the list of schools that either trained or currently employ these top scholars is quite different from Linton's (2004) recent ranking of the top business schools in the management of technology. Guided by social capital theory, the present study analyzes the embeddedness characteristics of IM scholars to determine the extent to which social capital explains scholarly productivity. A current controversy in the social capital literature is the embeddedness characteristics that create social capital. On the one hand, the closure perspective argues that social capital results from strong relational ties with others in a dense, local neighborhood of actors who are relatively disconnected from others. On the other hand, the brokerage perspective argues that social capital is created when actors have relational ties that span these dense, local neighborhoods. The findings in the present study support both perspectives. Furthermore, the results suggest that strategic orientation is a contingency variable that clarifies the conditions in which closure‐ or brokerage‐based embeddedness is appropriate. Specifically, scholars pursuing an entrepreneurial publication strategy are more productive when their relational embeddedness is consistent with the brokerage perspective of social capital creation, whereas scholars pursuing a focused publication strategy are more productive when their relational embeddedness is consistent with the closure perspective of social capital creation. The results have implications for both the IM scholar community and the social capital literature. Whether IM scholars are pursuing an entrepreneurial strategy that capitalizes on emergent knowledge across various theories and perspectives or pursuing a focused strategy by concentrating on gaining deep understanding of a specific stream of research, there are many avenues and opportunities for improving publication performance through the formation of new social capital. Finally, the empirical support for the contingency variable strategic orientation is consistent with recent speculation that both perspectives are important and suggests that future work should focus on further identification and clarification of contingency factors associated with them.     

组织资源配置中的社会资本问题探析

管理的任务在于对组织资源进行优化配置.社会资本是行政方式和市场方式之外的第三种组织资源配置方式.社会资本方式的优点明显,问题更突出.问题主要体现在组织资源配置的非均衡性.对于这个问题的解决,文章作者提供了四种路径,分别是扩大资源总量、扩大交往、宏扬主体性和强化正式制度.     

企业社会资本的国内研究进展与趋势展望

随着社会资本理论的发展,企业社会资本也引起国外学者们的重视。与此同时,国内的部分学者也对此表现出了极大的兴趣,研究的内容涉及概念、层次、形成与积累的路径和功效等方面,取得了一定的成果,但也存在着一些不足和缺陷。文章就目前研究的现状做一个简要的述评。     

保险业新主体公司的经济绩效与组织管理及人力资本利用

近年来保险业许多成立的新主体公司,为了抢占市场份额,在所采取的各种组织措施和组织手段中,其最重要的组织管理与人力资源利用的制度却出现了矛盾和悖论,进而又出现了人力资源利用与经济绩效的悖论,并造成人力资本的原子状态,使公司成员缺乏团队精神,不能形成整体的合力,并带来公司内人际关系紧张等一系列严重问题。究其问题的核心,发现其组织管理制度和人才激励机制是对人的扭曲,把人降低为物当成了工具。这样的问题如果不能得到及早、尽快地解决,不仅会影响新主体公司的生存和发展,甚至会危及整个保险业的健康发展。     

企业社会资本的功效结构:基于中国上市公司的实证研究

与政府的联系、组织的社会网络资本和特有的关系资本构成了企业的社会资本。通过对97家上市公司的经验研究表明,企业社会资本对销售收入的提升有着正面的促进作用,但对资产报酬率的改善却没有明确的影响。具体而言,在提升销售收入过程中,组织的社会网络资本作用最大,特有关系资本次之,企业家的政府关系资本是第三位的。我们还发现,国有企业比非国有企业在政府关系的利用和获得有利社会地位方面更有优势,但在组织的特有关系资本建设方面却呈现不足。作者建议管理者谨慎评价企业社会资本的功效,有必要考虑不同社会资本结构的交互作用,并将之与其他要素综合起来运用;企业应当用动态的眼光分辨不同层次的社会资本对绩效改善的作用。     

企业理论的社会资本逻辑

本文在回顾以知识为基础的企业理论的基础上，提出了社会资本不仅是企业战略资源，也是企业的一种有效的治理机制。企业交易复杂性程度越高，社会资本治理存在的价值就越大。按照社会资本治理的逻辑，企业比市场更能有效地创造社会资本，更能充分有效地利用社会资本的价值；与之相适应，本文分析了企业制度安排从资本为基础转向以社会资本为基础的可能性与现实性。     

The Importance of Social Capital to the Management of Multinational Enterprises: Relational Networks Among Asian and Western Firms

Social capital is an important concept for multinational firms. Firms operating in global markets rarely have adequate resources to compete effectively in global markets; they access the needed resources through formal and informal relationships with other firms. The cultures in Asian countries have emphasized relationships much more strongly than Western firms. Thus, relational capital, based on guanxi (China), kankei (Japan) and inmak (Korea), provides the framework for business dealings in many Asian countries. As a result, the social capital of many Asian firms gives them a potential competitive advantage in global markets. Western firms must develop social capital and learn to manage relational networks to gain and sustain a competitive advantage in global markets. Western firms can learn how to develop and manage social capital from Asian firms. Alternatively, social capital has some disadvantages. Firms are limited by their networks and thus experience opportunity costs and path dependence. Additionally, while Asian firms often have strong network ties in their domestic markets, they have to develop many more ties globally to operate effectively in global markets. As a result, the development and management of social capital has become of critical importance for competitive advantage in global markets.     

论企业社会资本的有机构成及功能

企业社会资本是企业内外个人及组织之间的社会信任网络。它是微观、中观、宏观三个层面信任网络相互联系、相互平衡所形成的有机整体。构成企业生产能力、创利能力及企业生存发展的社会根基。企业社会资本的重要价值，是揭示了全球化、信息经济背景下。根植于关系、商誉、品牌等无形资源的“体系优势”、“动态柔性”和“创利能力”超越传统工业时代的区位优势、静态资源和生产能力，成为企业持续创新和竞争优势的来源。     

人力资本：企业法人治理结构的革命

一、人力资本对法人治理结构的冲击我们现在讲公司治理结构问题,差不多是叫"一个基础,一个中心,两个措施"。"基础"就是以两权分离为基础;"一个中心"就是以界定企业的经营者和所有者的关系为中心,我们提了两方面措施,第一个措施叫董事长、总经理分开,董事长主要对重大经营决策负责,总经理主要对日常经营活动负责,这样就把所有者和经营者的关系界定清楚了;第二个措施是完善董事会、监事会,通过完善董事会和监事会,加强对经营者的约束。这就是我们现在《公司法》和企业所讲的法人治理结构。但是,这种治理结构在国际上已经被抛弃了…     

社会资本结构与民营企业成长

本文以个人关系资本与集群网络资本构成的社会资本结构为理论工具，通过两者的禀赋差异与组合，将我国经济转轨时期民营经济成长的环境分为四种类型。在实证地比较这四种环境下民营经济发展绩效的基础上，本文提出了集群网络资本有助于缺乏个人关系资本的中小企业发展的观点，并指出了伴随我国市场制度的逐步完善，个人关系资本弱化与集群网络资本强化的趋势。     

知识流动视角下的组织制度与组织环境耦合度分析

组织内部通过知识流动的途径可以使知识这种特殊资源发挥最大效益。组织制度和组织环境是知识流动的主要影响因素,二者存在交互耦合的关系,互相促进、互相制约共同推动知识在组织内部的流动。本文运用协同论的基本思想提出了组织制度和组织环境的耦合强度和协调程度测度方法,并对科技创新团队Z进行了实证分析。     

水资源管理体制的理论与实践

对流域管理问题的研究是促进社会经济可持续发展的重要前提,特别是新水法出台后,结合其所规定的流域管理原则性规定,完善现行流域管理的法律法规及研究流域机构的地位、职责、权限,进一步完善流域管理与区域管理、流域机构与省、自治区、直辖市水行政主管部门的关系,探索建立一个强有力的、综合性的流域管理机构等问题,变得更具紧迫性和重要性。     

Organizational research on market transition: A sociological approach

The proliferation of transition economies provides a unique opportunity to study the formation and behavior of social and economic structures, and literature exploring these issues has grown dramatically in recent years. Sociologists have made important contributions to the study of transition, particularly to theories of organizations and organizational change in China. In this article, I provide a critical assessment of the state of sociological literature on the transition process. I take stock of research that studies the emergence of new organizational forms, the growth of entrepreneurship, and the development of markets in China. I conclude with suggestions for resolving central debates and otherwise extending the literature.     

Organizational Obstacles to Innovation: A Formulation of the Problem

A large corporation is a complex social system that seems to take on a life of its own quite apart from the purpose for which it is intended. When one of the purposes of the organization is innovation, the social system can produce obstacles that are not easy to overcome. In this article, Professor Volney Stefflre provides a refreshing look at the problems of keeping an organization innovative enough so that it can survive and thrive in a changing environment. Professor Stefflre's view is an unusual and creative one. It comes partly from his many years of working with a variety of manufacturers as they attempted to adapt to their changing environments through innovation. It also comes from his background in psycho-linguistics—the area, he says, where psychology and anthropology meet. It may not be surprising then that his article includes a brief look at empires and civilizations as part of the support for his thesis. This article is adapted from one of the chapters of Professor Stefflre's new book: Developing and Implementing Marketing Strategies . New York: Praeger Publishers Inc., 1985.