Hindering or enabling structural social capital to enhance buyer performance? The role of relational social capital at two levels in China

Abstract

Purpose: In its cognitive, relational, and structural forms, social capital has been identified as a powerful strategic tool. However, prior empirical studies focus only on the direct effect of various dimensions of social capital and address relational social capital at either a dyadic level or a network level. Drawing on the social capital theory and social network theory, this study fills the above-mentioned gaps by examining the role of structural and relational social capital on performance through exploring direct and interaction effects simultaneously and revealing the moderating effect of relational social capital at the dyadic and network levels (including business ties and political ties) simultaneously.Methodology/Approach: Based on data for 393 distributors from China, a moderated regression analysis is used to test the hypotheses.Findings: The empirical test generally supports the hypotheses and indicates that the value of structural social capital is conditional on both curvilinear and linear moderating effects of relational social capital: the moderating effects of business ties on the structural social capital–buyer performance relationship is inverted U-shaped, while the moderating effects of relational social capital at the dyadic level and political ties on the structural social capital–buyer performance relationship is positive.Research Implications: This study incorporates all three dimensions of social capital, represents one of the first attempts to examine the interplay between structural and relational social capital in emerging economies, explores relational social capital at the dyadic and network levels simultaneously, and responses to the fact that buyer–supplier relationships (BSRs) are embedded within a larger context of social networks. By addressing these issues, this study sheds new light on the individual and joint impact of various dimensions of social capital and provides new evidence on both the positive and negative aspects of social capital in a single model.Practical Implications: The results provide important implications for managers in addressing social capital in an emerging economy. In order to improve performance, managers should first encourage and foster frequent, diverse, scarce, and high-quality information exchange and interactions to accumulate structural social capital. Additionally, managers should not only emphasize relational social capital building and development in BSRs, but also pay attention to the cultivation of relational social capital among the business network. They should acknowledge the persistent positive effect of political ties and the potential negative effect of business ties.Originality/Value/Contribution: First, few studies examine both the individual and synergetic effects of various dimensions of social capital in a single model or explicitly explore relational social capital in a dyadic relationship and deeply consider it at the network level in a single model. This study addresses these issues.

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