Be close to government and academy: TMT social capital, network prestige and firm’s innovation performance

Purpose Drawing from social capital theory and resource dependence theory, this paper aims to test the relationship between top management team (TMT) government social capital and firm’s innovation performance via firm’s network prestige, and the moderating effect of TMT academic social capital. Design/methodology/approach The authors collected data from the China Stock Market and Accounting Research Database as well as A-share listed firms’ annual reports, and finally generated a sample of 922 firms and 2,464 firm-years from 2008 to 2014. UCINET 6.0 was used to analyze the data. Findings The authors find that the government social capital of TMT is positively related to firms’ innovation performance and firms’ network prestige plays a mediating role in this relationship. In addition, TMT academic social capital can strengthen the links between TMT government social capital and innovation performance through firms’ network prestige. Originality/value This paper not only contributes to literatures on the mechanism in the relationship between government social capital and firms’ innovation, but also to literatures on the effectiveness of the heterogeneity of firm’s social capital.