Social Capital, Entrepreneurial Orientation and Organizational Effectiveness: An Empirical Study of High-tech Ventures

Based on Nahapiet and Ghoshal´s three dimension of social capital, including the structural, the relational and the cognitive^[1], this study examined the relationship between social capital and organizational effectiveness and the interrelations among the three dimensions in the context of high-tech industries. The moderating effects of entrepreneurial orientation were investigated further. A survey was conducted of 148 high-tech ventures, results from structural equation modeling suggest that structural capital and relational capital only have one effect on non-financial or financial performance, while cognitive capital has both two, and the three dimensions of social capital have a complicated interrelation among themselves. Results from multiple regressions indicated the moderating effects of entrepreneurial orientation only exist in some given conditions. Implications and future research directions are proposed.