- Title
- Evidence on the effect of relational and structural social capital on firm performance
- Creator
- Farah, Tazrina
- Relation
- University of Newcastle Research Higher Degree Thesis
- Resource Type
- thesis
- Date
- 2022
- Description
- Research Doctorate - Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)
- Description
- This thesis investigates the effect of social capital on firm performance. I argue that the impact of firm-level social capital can be contingent on its categorisation and measurement. Using a sample of 10,122 United States firm–year observations for the period 2005–18, the first empirical study examines the influence of trust-based relational and social network-based structural social capital on firm performance. The empirical results show that relational social capital positively influences firm performance, whereas the effect of structural social capital is negative. Results are robust to the use of alternative proxies of social capital, alternative model specifications and tests for endogeneity. The second empirical study investigates the same relationship using a comprehensive global sample consisting of 24,980 firm–year observations covering 30 countries for the same period as in the previous study. This study too reports a positive effect of relational social capital and negative impact of structural social capital on firm performance, aligning with the findings of the first empirical study. The results are robust to a battery of sensitivity tests. This international study also tests the moderating effects of several country-level factors on the relationship between relational social capital and firm performance. The findings indicate that relational social capital has a stronger influence on firm performance in countries where the country-level social capital is higher, markets are developed, country-level governance is stronger and the legal system operates under a common regime. Overall, the findings suggest that firm-level social capital plays an important role in determining firm performance; nevertheless the direction and magnitude of influence depends on the type of social capital. This finding is expected to help companies estimate their stock of social capital, and policy makers to evaluate the value relevance of social capital.
- Subject
- social capital; firm performance; trust-based relational; network-based structural
- Identifier
- http://hdl.handle.net/1959.13/1496047
- Identifier
- uon:54118
- Rights
- Copyright 2022 Tazrina Farah
- Language
- eng
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| View Details Download | ATTACHMENT01 | Thesis | 1 MB | Adobe Acrobat PDF | View Details Download | ||
| View Details Download | ATTACHMENT02 | Abstract | 353 KB | Adobe Acrobat PDF | View Details Download |