Institutional Construct,network Pluralism And Corporate Misconduct Behavior

It has been widely acknowledged that social networks play an indispensable part in the operation and maintenance of society(eg,Bian,1997;Bian & Ang,1997;Chua,Morris,& Ingram,2009;Morris,Podolny,& Sullivan,2008;Xiao & Tsui,2007).As a structural unit of society,the relationship network exists among the broad institutional framework,which is the basic norm and important link between the social life and the interpersonal relationship.The extensive and irreplaceable property of network penetrates all aspects of the social life.The importance of network is not only reflected in the broadness of the network distribution and the heterogeneity of the network value,but also lies in the diversity of the network and its derived species reflected by the subtle influnces of the traditional Chinese cultural gene and the transformation of the social and economic system.Enterprises,or corporate executives can be embedded in multiple networks of different forms,different functions,and different levels of social relations organizations(Connolly,2005;Laumann et al.,1978);network actors are often involved in multiple networks(Laumann,Marsden,& Prensky,1989;Shipilov and Li,2012);and,the network action subject can simultaneously expand the different types of relational networks,and numbers of the different types of relationships can parallel carry out different practical activities at the same time.Political network and business network can also bring different types of business network resources to help enterprises to adapt to the dual institutional environment-strong government and strong market.However,since multiple networks are linked together by a common action subject,multiple networks are involved in potential contact points that are not independent of each other and interact and influence each other under certain conditions.In this way,there are tans of unexcavated areas of network pluralism waiting to be discovered and explored(Halinen & Jan-?ke,2005;Lin,Cook,Burt,2001).Therefore,in order to deepen the network pluralism research,this paper takes advantage of the institutional theory and the social network theory based on the typology of network pluralism,with the help of network pluralism,mainly explores two research questions: antecedents of network pluralism: How the institutional construction drawing the impacts on the diversification of corporate networks,and consequences of network pluralism: How the embeddness of the network pluralism shape the corporate misconduct behavior.This paper deduces and analyzes the relevant variables of institutional construction,network pluralism and corporate misconduct,including the conceptual model of related variables.Specifically,in the division of network pluralism typology,this paper highlights two functional categories-political and business networks,as well as two levels-the executive network and the firm network,according to the core of network diversification concept and division,this paper presents four types of network diversification: executive business network,executive political network,firm business network and firm political network.At the same time,this paper explores the internal causes and operation mechanism of the two kinds of diametrically opposite effects of network pluralism by complementing and analyzing the system construction from the perspective of institutional theory.At the same time,analyze the network pluralism on the creation of corporate misconduct from the network embeddness perspective(Connolly,2005;Shipilov et al.,2014),exploring the inherent causes and operational processes of the two opposite effects— lightening core and buffering zone effect.In this manner,we construct the theoretical framework to describe the relationship between the variables,and put forward the corresponding research hypothesis.The empirical study was conducted from 498 companies listed on the GEM of Shenzhen Stock Exchange from October 2009 to December 2015.After a series of screening,we finally received 1,620 observation objects.At the same time,by using the annual report that the listed companies disclosed as the data source,this research coding the main variables including the institutional construction,network pluralism,corporate misconduct and other major variables through the listed company's annual original report.Through the second-hand data empirical analysis,we depicted the relationship of the main variables,specifically,institutional antecedence of network pluralism,as well as the potential side consequences of network pluralism.In light of the systematic theoritical and empirical research,this study have certain theoretical contribution and practical value,and provide useful enlightenment for future research.Based on theoretical analysis and empirical research,this paper draws the following conclusions:(1)The institutional elements are not consistent in the direction of constructing different network behaviors,and the institutional construction is positively related to the business network,which,on the other hand,negatively related to the political network.Four network pluralism types(executive business network,executive political network,firm business network and firm political network.): institutional construction positively related to the executive business network and firm business network;Institutional construction is negatively related to the executive political network and firm political network.(2)Network pluralism exerts lightening core effect,as well as exert buffering effect on the company's corporate misconduct behavior.In this manner,the embeddness of executive business network have an inverted U-shaped association with the misconduct of the company.The embeddness of the executive political network is negatively related to the misconduct of the company.The embeddness of the firm's business network is negatively related to the misconduct of the company,while the embeddness of the firm political network have a U-shaped association the misconduct of the company.In other words,the diversification of the network level-the economic rationality pursued by the enterprise exhibits the lightening core effect,while the social attributes embedded in the executive network exhibits the buffering effect on company's corporate misconduct behavior.At the same time,the diversification of the network function-the non-humanized transaction characteristics and resource attributes of the business network exhibits the lightening core effect,while the tendency of the personality traits and resource attributes of the political network exhibits the buffering effect on company's corporate misconduct behavior.The innovation of this paper is mainly reflected in the following aspects:(1)The typology of network pluralism,positioning level and functional dimensions.The main innovation of this paper is to integrate the traditional network perspective into the(Connolly,2005;Shipilov et al.,2014)and the network pluralism perspective.Based on this,we move forward building and expanding the conceptual frame of the network pluralism.We classified the network pluralism through a two-way cross to the functional dimension(object of network construction),as well as the level dimension(subject of network construction),which formed the typology of network pluralism: executive business network,executive political network,firm business network and firm political network.(2)Based on the network pluralism conceptual typology framework,the paper analyzes the supplement and substitution mechanism of institutional antecedence.Another essencial innovation of this paper we proposed is that the inconsistency of the institutional elements in the direction of shaping the network pluralism function,which is the main factor leading to the previous disagreement between the institution and the network.Through the division of functional dimension(object of the network construction)and the systematic review of institutional construction,this paper has predominantly focused on highlighting the penetration and construction effect of institutional elements on the multivariate network subject and its behavior(Scott & Christensen,1995:310).Accordingly,we predict uniqueness of the institutional elements in the direction of specific network behavior.Moreover,strengthen the supplement and substitution mechanism of institutional construction.(3)Drawing on the insights of network pluralism,we analysis the lightening core effect as well as the buffering effect on shaping the corporate misconduct.The key innovation of this paper is to pay attention to the negative effect of network pluralism,that is,on the basis of the traditional network perspective;we focus on the lightening core effect as well as the buffering effect of network pluralism on shaping the corporate misconduct.We draw on network embeddedness perspective to address the above puzzle that due to the different attributes,content and configuration of the network,multivariate networks may have heterogeneous embedded effects on enterprises(Carpenter et al.,2012).In this study,we highlight the two contradictory effects: lightening core and buffering effect that the embedded network brings to the enterprise and then promoting the development of traditional network embedded research.In particular,this paper takes the listed companies on the GEM as the research object,and analyzes the behavior characteristics of entrepreneurial enterprises in the transitional context.GEM companies have a certain profit base,with a certain size of the assets,and the need to pass the threshold of surviving,with the characters of high growth,first moving and risk-taking.At the same time,the GEM listed companies are rich in real and effective data sources,which provides solid and comprehensive and representative research samples for strategic management and entrepreneurial theory research.Different from the previous empirical research of institutional environment,social network which treats them as latent variables,we measure those variables by coding the annual report data of the GEM listed companies,which is also another critical innovation of this paper.