Social Capital Embedded In Network And It’s Impact On The Enterprises’ Technological Standardization Capability

Nowadays, the low-cost competitive advantage of Chinese manufacturing industry is disappearing, which indicates that it is imperative to give impetus to the enterprise transformation and upgrading. As technological standards are the regulation for industrial development and commanding heights of competitive advantage, participating in standard setting has become a crucial way for firms to obtain competitive advantages. Therefore, one of the challenges for developing Chinese manufacturing industry is to impr ove firms’ technological standardization ability to grasp the new round of industrial revolution opportunities.Technology modularity requires the interdependence of all organizations, thus connectivity leads to bigger utility of a single product. The complexity and innovation of technology research and development requiresfirms to participant a variety of social networks to access to critical resources which are hard to be replicated by competitors. Cooperative R&D is a good way for firms to gain important outside resources. Therefore, it is very significant to study the ability of firms’ technological standardization from the perspective of social capital in cooperative R&D.Due to the difficulties of data acquisition, most studies have adopted qualitative methods, such as theoretical deduction, mathematical modeling, simulation and case study, to analyze the technological standardization. However, existing studies lack of quantitative methods to test the conclusions. Besides, only a few studies have explored firms’ ability of technological standardization empirically. Social capital measurements are usually basedon questionnaire, butthe indicator selection criteria are not uniform. Therefore, this paper makes up for the deficiency, and useslarge sample data to analyzethe formation of social capital in R&D collaborative networks and the effects of social capital on firm ’s technological standardization ability. The main contents include:(1) The formulation and accumulation of social capital embedded in cooperative R&D network. According to the relationship between cooperative R&D system and technical system, we analyze the connections and differences between cooperative R&D network and social capital. Besides, we discuss the motives and conditions of social capital concerned with cooperative R&D network. We construct the cooperative R&D social network by using the joint patent application in Chinese automobile industry to clearly show the features of the formulation and accumulation of social capital of each member in the network. Then, by using optimal social capital investment model, the study shows that discount rate, network stability and depreciation factor have positive impacts on social capital investment, but the opportunity cost has a negative impact on social capital investment. The results lay a foundation for choosing suitable network variables to measure social capital.(2) Discussion on the formation and improvement of technological standardization ability. We first introduce the process of technological standard formation and analyze the transformation between formal standards and de facto standards. Then we discuss key elements for the formation of technological standards. We also analyze technological, market and political factors which influence the technological standardization ability and conclude three formation basis of technological standardization ability, that is, heterogeneous resources, technological innovation and collaborative management. These three activities construct the triple helix structure of technological standardization ability. According to the questions mentioned above, this paper clearly shows that social network is the important resource of technological standardization ability, and also shows how to improve the ability in different situations and the significance of technology diversification.(3) According to different dimensions of social capital concerned with cooperative R&D network, we analyze its impact on technological standardization ability. Based on the impacting factors of social capital investment, we select secondary indicators based on the characteristics of structural embeddedness and relational embeddedness. We use degree centrality and betweenness centrality to measure structural social capital, becausethey reflect the impersonal factor of the social network and exhibit a good approximation. As relational social capital reflects relationship between partners, relationship s trength and breadth are suitable measures. Meanwhile, this paper analyzes the four general patterns of social capital, which are integrated innovation, collaborative innovation, governance based on network power and reducing transaction cost. Based on a comprehensive analysis of the direct influencing mechanism of different social capital on firm ’s technological standardization ability, the mediating effect of technology diversification and the moderating effect of technical innovation level are discussed.(4) Empirical tests. We use patents and technological standards in auto mobile industry and construct R&D collaborative networks by using the co-patent data and empirically studythe relationship between the social capital in R&D collaborative networks and firms’ technological standardization ability. The empirical results show thedirect effectof social capitaland indirect effect of technology diversification on firms’ technological standardization ability. A better position in the R&D collaborative network offers more structural embedding social capital, which increases the firm ’s technological standardization ability. But the effects of relational embedding social capital on firm’s technological standardization ability depend on the strength and breadth of the relationship. The strength of relationship has no significant impact on firm’s technological standardization ability, while the breadth of relationship significantly affects firm’s technological standardization ability. Second, technology diversification has mediating effect on the relationship between the relational embedding social capital and firm’s technological standardization ability. Strong related technological diversification plays an intermediary role in the relationship between strength and technological standardization ability, while weak related technological diversification plays an intermediary role in relationship between breadth and technological standardization ability. Besides, the results indicate that firm’s technological innovation level has an inverted U-shaped moderating effect on technology diversification and technological standardization ability.This study bases on the context of Chinese manufacturing facing transformation and upgradingand puts forward the path of how social capital influence technological standardization ability with the mediating effect of technology diversification and technical innovation level. The findings to some extent contribute to the application value of social capital, technology innovation theory and standard economics, and have guidance for standardization practice. Based on the analysis of relationship and distinction between cooperative R&D network and social capital, we choose the appropriate network measurement, which enriches the ap plication and measurements of social capital.Then we collect patent and standard data, and provide empirical evidence for the synergetic development between technology standards and patents. These findings give implications to firms about how to choose net work patterns under different contexts, how to develop technology diversification activities, and how to improve its technological standardization ability. The paper also gives political suggestions for policy makers about how to establish an industry-university-research synergetic innovation system to enhance the industrial standard competitiveness.