The Effects of Social Capital on Firm Substantive and Symbolic Performance: In the Context of E-Business

This study examines the effects of social capital in the context of e-business and investigates how each of the three dimensions of social capital (structural, relational and cognitive) differentially influences a firm's substantive and symbolic performance. The study explores how structural capital and cognitive capital indirectly affect firm performance through relational capital. The research model is generally supported by data collected from a survey of 205 firms in China. The results suggest that structural and relational capital positively influence substantive and symbolic performance, respectively. However, cognitive capital does not have significant effects on substantive performance, though it positively affects symbolic performance. Also, the study found that structural capital and relational capital have stronger effects on substantive performance than symbolic performance. In contrast, cognitive capital has stronger effects on symbolic performance than substantive performance. Further, both structural capital and cognitive capital positively affect relational capital.