Abstract

Social capital is increasingly regarded as a crucial predictor of performance improvement. However, the Internet is challenging the previous understanding of social capital. In this study, we conduct a research to empirically test the social capital theory in the context of e-business. Specifically, we investigate the influence of social capital on firm substantial and symbolic performance, and compare the influence of social capital on substantial performance to on symbolic performance in the context of e-business. Data were obtained from a survey administered to 205 firms in China. The results suggest that structural and relational capital could influence substantial and symbolic performance significantly. However, we find that cognitive capital could not impact substantive performance significantly, but can influence symbolic performance significantly. We conclude with implications and suggestions for future research.

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