Top management's social capital and learning in new product development and its interaction with external uncertainties

This paper examines the effect of the elements of top management's social capital on exploratory and exploitative learning and on the outcomes of new product development (NPD), as well as the interaction effects of these elements with external uncertainties. In so doing, the study follows prior research that calls for a fine-grained analysis of how top management's social capital can positively affect NPD outcomes. Large-scale survey data (675 firms) from the United States, Germany, and Australia are used to develop and empirically validate a theoretical framework. As hypothesized, elements of top management's social capital have positive, but not identical, effects on exploitative and exploratory learning. In addition, the effects of structural social capital on learning, as well as the effects of learning on NPD outcomes, are significantly moderated by the interplay of technology uncertainty and demand uncertainty. The research concludes with implications for theory and practice.