Enterprise Vertical Social Capital And Competitive Advantage,

In the changing society, the unique invariability is change itself. Facing to the uncertain technology, production, market competitive structure, industry development, the capability of distributors and the needs of customers, an enterprise can not compete by itself, It must depend on others, construct cooperation network. As a produce enterprise, it should cooperate with the suppliers and distributors, through interaction to get resources and abilities, in order to survive and keep advantages in the market. According to the investigation of vertical network cooperation and the relative literature reviews, we confirmed some theoretical and practical issues unresolved:â‘ How to construct and explore firm vertical social capital(VSC)?â‘¡What are the interactions between three dimensions of vertical social capital with firm competitive capability(FCC)?â‘¢Are there necessary relations between enterprise network cooperation with firms' cost and performance?â‘£How does vertical social capital influence firm competitive advantage(FCA) by the mediation of firm capability?(1)The construct of vertical social capital and its influence factors to the enterprise competitive advantage were explored. We used some methods, such as theory analyses, enterprise interview, exploratory factor analysis (EFA), confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) to assured the three dimensions of vertical social capital and the indicators in each dimension. Through Structural Equation Modeling(SME), we get the direct standardized loadings of structural dimension(SD), relational dimension(RD) and cognitive dimension(CD) for social capital to enterprise competitive advantage, which included: 0.276(P=0.0027),0.335(P=0.008) and 0.269(P=0.016). The outcome certified that vertical social capital is important resources to improve firm competitive advantage.(2)The processes and operation mechanisms of three firm capabilities were identified and defined; discussed the possible influences for vertical social capital to production capability (PA), marketing capability (MA) and technological innovation capability (TA). These influences include:â‘ The SD of vertical social capital affect the firm capability mainly through influence the lines relationships among node enterprise. That is to say, whether the resources channels exist, whether the channels are enough, whether the lines between partners are strong, and whether the network is stable.â‘¡The RD of vertical social capital affect the firm capability include: the common commotions and identifications; the deepen trust and trustworthy; and the expectation to share valuable knowledge, information and technology, etc.â‘¢The CD of vertical social capital supply common cognitive model for node enterprises, the network nodes have shared language and code, they devote to same object, then realize the most benefit. The basic conclusion is: higher social capital level in enterprise network is beneficial to the resources obtaining, share and translation, then affect the PC, MC and TC.(3)The model that VSC affects the FCA by the mediation of PC, MC and TC. First, using the structural equation modeling, the dissertation tested the four conditions that confirmed the mediation:â‘ The regression among PC, MC ,TC and SD, RD, CD was conducted, and the loadings were significant.â‘¡The regression among FCA and SD, RD, CD was conducted, and the loading was significant.â‘¢The regression among FCA and PC, MC, TC was conducted, and the loadings were significant.â‘£The regression among VSC, PC, MC, TC and FCA (FCA). The loadings of PC, MC and TC were significant; the loadings of SD, RD, and CD decreased, but were still significant. The outcomes of the tests showed that PC, MC and TC partly mediated the relations between VSC and FCA, VSC also affect FCA directly. Second, using the structural equation modeling, the dissertation compared the full-mediation model and the two semi-mediation models. The comparative outcomes demonstrated that the adjusted semi-mediation model had best fitness, the fitness index of model 3 including, x~2 /df, RMSEA, GFI,AGFI,NFI,IFI & CFI were 2.303, 0.033, 0.936, 0.924, 0.937, 0.960 & 0.955. The testing outcomes also revealed that the vertical social capital not only directly affect enterprise competitive advantage, but also indirectly influence EFA through the partial mediation of production capability, marketing capability, and technology innovation capability.Finally, we summarized the main conclusions, research limitations and future directions.