Interpreting the relationships between network closure and firms' competitive advantages; A Knowledge-based perspective

Abstract

Along with the expansion of knowledge bases of products/services, sources of such expertise are becoming widely dispersed outside firm boundaries. Current study aimed to address research question in "how could network structures impact on firms' competitive advantages from a knowledge-based view?"The current study synthesized two literature bodies in organizational learning and social network by establishing the mediating role of interorganizational learning and knowledge protection process between network closure and firms' competitive advantages. It is hypothesized that network closure has both positive and negative impacts on different stages of interorganizational learning and knowledge protection process. In addition, internal social integration mechanism and environmental dynamics were hypothesized as the moderating factors that affect individual firms' learning outcomes.Large scale surveys in petrochemical industry (mainland China) and semiconductor industry (Taiwan) were conducted, and PLS analysis as implemented in PLS Graph 3.0 yielded statistical evidences in favor of the above hypotheses.