Title: Social network ties and resource acquisition: evidence from China's transitional economy

Authors: Li Cai, Xiumei Zhu, Wenjin Li, Martin Stosslein

Addresses: School of Management, Jilin University, Changchun 130025, People's Republic of China. ' School of Management, Jilin University, Changchun 130025, People's Republic of China. ' School of Management, Jilin University, Changchun 130025, People's Republic of China. ' School of Management, Jilin University, Changchun 130025, People's Republic of China

Abstract: Based on the system perspective, we develop a theoretical model for the relationship between social network (SN) ties and resource acquisition (RA) and examine how environmental dynamism (ED) moderates this relationship, then conduct empirical analysis using data of 326 new firms Jilin province of China. The result suggests that SN ties have positive effects on external RA and internal resource accumulation whereas the external RA has a positive effect on internal resource accumulation. The empirical results also show that ED positively moderates the relationship between SNs and external RA.

Keywords: social networks; ties; networking; external resource acquisition; environmental dynamism; systems perspectives; transitional economies; Jilin; internal resource accumulation; business; systems research; China; strategic management.

DOI: 10.1504/IJBSR.2010.035079

International Journal of Business and Systems Research, 2010 Vol.4 No.5/6, pp.648 - 672

Published online: 02 Sep 2010 *

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