The Empirical Testing Of The Relationships Between The Three Dimensions Of Social Capital And Corporation Performance

Social capital has played an important role in the explaination about corporation performance nowaday. It became an critical base for the economic sence that explain the economic activities with the net of social relationship. Nahapiet and Ghoshal(1998) state that social capital is"the sum of the actual and potential resources embedded within, available through, and derived from the network of relationships possessed by an individual or social unit."Thus, they defined social capital in terms of three distinct dimensions which are the structural, the relational, and the cognitive dimensions. Meanwhile, we can conclude that there two levels in social capital from the definations and the practical researches: microcosmic,macroscopical. Microcosmic includes the person and the unit. In this level, units embedded in an net, and they can earn their own benefits from this net. As the units get their benefits from outside, I named it as the external social capital. Macroscopical includes the unit, and any thing which can be seemed as a whole. In this level. Social capital exists between units, and the unit gets the benefits from the inner connections. So I named it as the inner social capital.With three dimensions and two levels, social capital positively influenced the corporations'performance by helping corporation get access to and use the resources effectively and effciently, reduce the cost of transactions.With the abundant connections between inner units, the resource flow not only in this way, unit—superviser—unit, but also in another way, unit—unit, which make sure the resource flow more wildly and more exactly. In another facet, the employee is embedded in the inner net, which make the employee's action influent the result of not only the transaction now, but also the transactions in the furture. So, it reduce the cost of transaction. Assumption H1a: structural dimension of inner social capital is related with the performance positively.The provider of the resource cling to provide the resource to the unit who has stronger relationship with himself. This may be good for the corporation performance. Because the trust come from the history. This trust means that according the history, if I give this resource to you, you will be more possible to give me the benefits. Also, more trust and more common ethics,easier control of the cost and the risk. The common ethics make sure that every member responses in more similar way without plenty of meetings, files, even the practices. Assumption H2a: relational dimension of the inner social capital is related the perfamence positively.The corporation shared the language, understand the corporation system in the same way. So in this situation, the resource can flow more quickly, and the memebers can know the environment, the developing direction more exactly. Thus everyone can work for the aim more correctly. Assumption H3a: the cognitive dimensions of inner social capital is related with performanc positively.The structural dimensions of external social capital makes the corporation embedded in a larger net. The corporation connects with the supplier to get the raw and processed materials, connects with government to know the policy earlier, which is very important in the transfer economy, even to get the far-between resource. The repeating connects, directly or indirectly, with the memebers in the net help the flew of the resource. Meanwhile, it help the corporation know others better which give the corporation the chance to find out good parterners to take use of resource more efficiently. In another facet, as the professional manager is located in the net, he must be responsible for his career. So he will take no opportunism. Assumption H1b: stuctural dimensions of external social capital is related with performance positively.Because of the trust, the corporation can get what the need in emergency. And the unimportant thing can be solved lately, such as the financial transfer, the sigh up. Because of the trust, corporations communicate frequently, and the topics are wild. So, it makes more chance to get the knowledge to raise the perfomance. In another way, the corporation will see the others differently when it chooses the parterner. The form of the relational dimension are trust, ethics, prestige. Every member in the net build it in long time with many times of interactions. But this kind of asset is very fragile. Only one unsuitable action would break it. So the memebers will keep consistance in every transaction, avoid opportunism, which reduce the cost of transaction and be good for the performance. Assumption H2b: relational dimension of external social capital is related with performance positively.The shared language make the communications between units more easier, and the information be transferred more correctly. The right information make the right decision more possibly. Thus, the performance is better. If the corporation has the similar value judgment with its parterner, the corporate will be more easier and effective. Assumption H3b: cognitive dimension of externel social capital is related with performance positively.To testify these assumptions, I collected the corporations'data in the northeast of china with the questionnaires. There are 164 pieces totally. I used the SPSS ans Amos analyze the data. The resulte support the assumtions.The data analysis show that the social capital and the corporation performance are related. The structural, relational, cognitive dimensions influence the competitivness now and furture. What's more, I notice that ,in northeast of China, the relational dimension influence the corporations'performance more markedly than structural dimension, especially the external relational social capital. Maybe it is because the circumstance in northeast of China is under the transfer economy. Government still play an important role. So the relationship between corporations and government decides the possibility of getting the resource. Meanwhile, the date show that the inner and external social capital influence the corporation performance together. So, when we talk about the social capital, it means the corporation develope not only the external social capital, but also the inner social capital.