Corporate Social Capital and Enterprise Performance: Exploring the Mediating Role of Knowledge Integration Ability and the Moderating Effect of Well-performing and Poorly-performing Enterprises

Abstract

The improvement of enterprise performance is a research topic that has been widely studied for a long time. As an enterprise’s internal resources are insufficient to achieve competitive advantage and achieve its performance, they need to obtain resources from outside the organization, especially external knowledge. Thus, this research aimed to investigate: (1) the mediating role of knowledge integration ability on the relationship between corporate social capital and enterprise performance, and (2) the moderating effect of enterprise performance itself, exhibited by well-performing and poorly-performing enterprises, on the impact of corporate social capital on enterprise performance. Technology-based small and medium-sized enterprises (technology-based SMEs) play an important role in modern rapid economic development, especially in China. Hence, the samples used in this study comprised 300 technology-based SMEs operating in China. The instrument used to collect data was a questionnaire that passed assessment in terms of content validity and reliability. A structural equation model was used to analyze the relationship between the variables and the mediating role of knowledge integration ability. Multi-group analysis was used to analyze the moderating effects of well-performing enterprises and poorly-performing enterprises on the impact of corporate social capital on enterprise performance. Data were analyzed using SPSS Statistics for Windows and Mplus Software. The research results revealed that corporate social capital had a positive effect on enterprise performance. Furthermore, corporate social capital had a positive effect on knowledge integration ability, which, in turn, had a positive effect on enterprise performance. Knowledge integration ability played a mediating role between corporate social capital and enterprise performance. For the whole samples, it played a partial mediating role, and also played a partial mediating role when the enterprise was performing well, and played a full mediating role when the enterprise was performing poorly. In addition, the research also found that the performance of the enterprise itself played a moderating role on the relationship between corporate social capital and enterprise performance. The conclusion of this study has practical guiding significance for the development of enterprises. From the perspective of improving enterprise performance, technology-based SMEs should actively cultivate and develop corporate social capital, so that abundant capital can better serve to improve enterprise performance. Moreover, enterprises should broaden the channels of knowledge integration and accelerate the speed of knowledge integration.