Entrepreneur Social Capital And Strategy Performance

Accompanied with the tide of economic globalization and the mushroom growth of information technology, strategy had increasingly become the focus of competition between enterprises. Cruel reality showed that correct strategy decision does not always lead to good performance, because the ability of execution affected the strategy performance at the same time. Being the key decision-maker and the leader of strategy execution, entrepreneurs played important roles in strategy performance undoubtedly. Therefore, research on the relationship between entrepreneur and enterprise strategy would have theoretical values and realistic meanings.However, most current literatures focused on the relationship between entrepreneur and strategy choice. The influence to strategy process especially to strategy implementation needs more attention and further study. Usually, the traditional research of entrepreneur based on Upper Echelons Theory and Cognitive Theory. They viewed the entrepreneurs as atoms, and isolated the entrepreneurs’ individual characteristics from their social characteristics. It was forgotten that the "social person" with their network resources will have influence on the strategy decision and strategy implementation. Under the special environments of transition economy in China, the old orders were broken, while the new systems had not been established yet. Although the traditional "Difference Sequence Pattern" was still alive, it had been entrusted with new era characteristics. Social Capitals, especially Entrepreneur Social Capitals were playing more and more important roles in the social economy of China. Therefore, when we study on strategy implementation from the view of Entrepreneur Social Capital, and explore the mechanisms between them, it will not only conducive to management theory research, but also settle for the needs of enterprise development in new era.This article attempts to reveal the relationship between Entrepreneur Social Capital and Strategy Performance from a new perspective. By quoting the intervening variable--Strategy Consensus, we tried to build a relational model of Entrepreneur Social Capital, Strategy Consensus and Strategy Performance. We analyzed the data of questionnaire survey by using statistical software, verified the positive correlations between the three variables, and tested the partial mediating effect of Strategy Consensus.Firstly, we reviewed the definitions of core concepts in this article such as Social Capital and Strategy Consensus. We defined Entrepreneur Social Capital as below:"The sum of relations which embedded in the entrepreneurial social network, it can be used or transferred, through which we can gain various resources benefit to the enterprise management activities and productions". Moreover, we extended the connotation of Strategy Consensus:"The shared understandings of corporate stakeholders on enterprise strategy ". Then, based on the related literatures and classical theories, combined with the current social situations in China, we have proposed the theoretical framework and the research hypothesis. We put forward the hypothesis:Entrepreneur Social Capital positively would influence Strategy Consensus; Entrepreneur Social Capital would have positive effects on Strategy Performance; Strategy Consensus would influence the Strategy Performance. With all these assumptions, we also proposed that:Strategy Consensus is an internal mechanism, through which the Entrepreneur Social Capital has an indirect and positive effect on Strategy Performance. Finally, we built up the relational model to explain the relationships between these three conceptions. In order to obtain effective data, we must rely on scientific research methods and reasonable measuring tools. Based on other scholar’s maturity scales, and combined with the actual research needs, we selected network structure, relation strength and the degree of trust as three dimensions of Entrepreneur Social Capital. We used consensus scope and consensus degree as two dimensions for measurement of Strategy Consensus. For strategy performance, we used a comprehensive index that was composed of financial effect, time effect, execution effect and ability effect. It took more than six months for us to complete the data collection works, such as questionnaire design, sample selection, questionnaires survey, and data processing. Ultimately, we have gotten146valid questionnaires from various types of enterprises.In empirical study part, we firstly used the software of SPSS16.0and Lisrel8.70to test reliability and validity of the scale and the data. It was showed that reliability and validity are good, and there were no serious common method variances and multi-colinearity problems. Then, the sample data were estimated by descriptive statistics analysis, through which the hypothesis are revealed correct in direction. Finally, we processed the linear regression analysis by using Baron and Kenny’s intermediary identification method, verified the relationships between independent variable, dependent variable and mediating variable step by step. The empirical results showed that:network structure, relation strength and trust degree will all have positive effects on strategy performance; network structure and trust degree have significant and positive correlations with strategy consensus, but relation strength has no significant correlation with strategy consensus; significantly, strategy consensus has positive effects on strategy performance, and it did play an intermediary role in the relationship between Entrepreneur Social Capital and Strategy Performance. We also found that degree of strategy change has certain influence on Strategy Consensus, while pattern of strategy decision has no great impact on consensus.The possible theoretical contributions of this paper includes:we have explored a new path of social capital and strategy management, we have reconsidered the essence and connotation of Entrepreneur Social Capital, we have expanded the research scope of strategy consensus, we have verified the relationships between Entrepreneur Social Capital and Strategy Performance, and we have confirmed the intermediary role of Strategy Consensus. The conclusions of this article also provided beneficial inspirations for management practice:Consensus on major strategic issues from internal and external stakeholders would be the important premise to enterprise strategy implementation, entrepreneurs should strengthen their social network construction, make full use of it to raise the strategy consensus level, so as to improve the enterprises strategy performance.At the end of this thesis, we summarized and analyzed the research results, explained the research hypothesis by using fundamental theories, and discussed the deficiency in this paper and the research directions in the future. Finally, we pointed out that the relationship and the mechanism between Entrepreneur Social Capital and Strategy Execution process will be a key point of management research.