Research On Influence Of Social Capital On Product Innovation: The Mediating Effect Of Knowledge Management And Supply Chain Integration

With the coming of the era of knowledge economy, the knowledge is graduallyexceeding the materials, financial resources, human capitals, and intellectual capitals,and becomes the key technological source of corporate innovation. Thus, with thecluster character of innovation in the supply chain, the supply chain integration alsobecomes an important technological resource of corporate innovation.Based on the social capital theory, the knowledge management theory, the supplychain integration theory, and the product innovation theory, this paper builds atheoretical model of corporate social capital and product innovation, respectivelyintroduces the knowledge management and supply chain integration as interveningvariables, uses the statistical analysis software SPSS16.0and AMOS7.0to makeempirical analysis, and explores the internal logic interactions and intermediaryeffects among the four elements. This paper includes the four aspects as follows.Firstly, divide the social capital into two aspects, i.e. the external social capitaland the internal social capital, and study the impacts on the knowledge management,supply chain integration, and product innovation respectively from the structuraldimension, cognitive dimension, and relationship dimension. Studies show that:(1)The cognitive dimension of social capital has positive impacts on product innovationand the structural dimension and relationship dimension of social capital have nodirect impact on product innovation;(2) The external social capital affects knowledgeacquisition positively and the internal social capital affects knowledge sharing,knowledge transfer and knowledge application positively;(3) The structuraldimension and cognitive dimension of external social capital affects the supplierintegration and customer integration positively, and the relationship dimension ofexternal capital has no direct impacts on supplier integration and customer integration;the structural dimension of internal social capital affects the internal integrationpositively, and the cognitive dimension and relationship dimension of internal socialcapital have no direct impacts on the internal integration.Secondly, build the structural model of social capital, knowledge management,and product innovation, and test the relationships of the three elements and theintervening effects of knowledge management. By introducing the knowledgemanagement as a intervening variable, this paper explores the internal logic path ofthe relationship of social capital and product innovation. Studies prove that knowledge acquisition, knowledge sharing, knowledge transfer, and knowledgeapplication respectively have intervening effects on the relationship of social capitaland product innovation.Thirdly, build the structural model of social capital, supply chain integration, andproduct innovation, and test the relationships of the three elements and the interveningeffects of supply chain integration. By introducing the supply chain integration as theintervening variable, this paper analyzes the internal logic path of the relationship ofsocial capital and product innovation. Studies show that the supplier integration andcustomer integration have intervening effects on product innovation at the structuraldimension and cognitive dimension of external social capital, while the supplierintegration and customer integration have no intervening effect on product innovationat the relationship dimension of external social capital; the internal integration hasintervening effects on product innovation at the structural dimension of internal socialcapital, while the internal integration has no intervening effect on product innovationat the cognitive dimension and relationship dimension of internal social capital.This paper completes an empirical research on four industries in thirteenprovinces and cities of China, verifies the functional mechanism and logic path of twostructural models, expands and deepens the study of relationships of social capital andproduct innovation, and provides theoretical directions for social capital management,knowledge management, supply chain integration management, and productinnovation management in Chinese corporations.