Research On The Effect Of Executives Social Networks On Strategic Alliance Stability

With the rapid development of modern technology and the acceleration of product update,it is increasingly difficult for enterprises to achieve development in the fierce market competition by relying on their own strength.Strategic alliance,a new modern organizational form,has been adopted by many enterprises,through which enterprises can obtain external resources and capabilities to create competitive advantages.From theoretical perspective,the conclusion of strategic alliances is beneficial to the development of enterprises,but in practice many strategic alliances are often end in failure.Therefore the study of the stability of strategic alliances has received great attention from the academic and management fields.Existing researches mostly explore the factors affecting the stability of strategic alliance from the macro level of enterprises and alliances,but rarely involve the research on the influence of individual factors on the stability of alliance at the micro level.As a typical “relationship society’’,“relationship culture” will influence Chinese people’s behavior and decision-making.In strategic alliances,corporate executives act as the makers of strategic decisions,and their social relationships influence each other’s behavior choices,which in turn affects the decisions of their companies in the alliance.Therefore,this paper attempts to construct a research framework from the micro-individual level to the macro-strategic alliance level from the perspective of executive social relations,and explore the path of the influence of corporate executives’ social relations on the stability of strategic alliances.By combing relevant literature and theory,this paper constructs a theoretical model to explore the influence path between corporate executives’ social relations,opportunistic behaviors,trust between partners and alliance stability.On this basis,it further proposed the moderating effect of contractual governance on the social relationship,opportunism and trust path of corporate executives.Then,an empirical analysis was carried out on 221 valid questionnaires obtained from the survey.SPSS21.0 and AMOS24.0 software were used to test the reliability and validity of the scale.The hypotheses are tested by structural equation modeling and adjusted variable regression analysis.Finally,based on the availability of information and transparency of information,this paper chooses the case of business strategic alliance between Cai niao network company and major domestic express companies to analyze,further verify the research hypothesis of this paper.The results show that,the micro-level corporate executives’ social relations will not directly affect the stability of the strategic alliance at the macro level,but will affect them through the two fully intermediaries of inter-partner trust and opportunistic behavior.Contractual governance can enhance the influence of corporate executives’ social relations on opportunistic behavior,while contractual governance can regulate the relationship between corporate executives’ social relations and trust between partners in an inverted u-shaped way.Based on the existing literature,this paper broadens the research perspective on the stability of strategic alliances and provides some guidance and suggestions for maintaining the stability of the alliance.