The Effects of Social Capital on Innovation Performance: From Complex Adaptive System Perspective

Abstract

The effects of organizational social capital on organizational innovation have attracted the bulk of attention in recent innovation literature. However, few studies have investigated the effects of organizational social capital on innovation performance from the complex adaptive system (CAS) perspective. Based on the CAS perspective, this paper simulates how organizations in manufacturing and service industries seek higher innovation performance on the rugged fitness landscape, which is determined by the complexity of the six components of organizational social capital. Data are collected from 271 firms including 129 manufacturing and 142 service firms. Empirical results indicate that except for inter-organizational coordination, the other five components of organizational social capital significantly affect innovation performance; and their effects vary between manufacturing and service organizations. Further, simulation results demonstrate that after adaptive evolution, the average innovation performance in manufacturing organizations is higher than that in service organizations.