Corporate Social Capital and Business Model Innovation: The Mediating Role of Organizational Learning

Existing studies demonstrate that corporate social capital can not only enable a firm to gain access to heterogeneous information and resources, but may also facilitate the establishment of behavioral norms, communication models and mutual-trust platforms with stakeholders in its social network. As a result, corporate social capital drives organizational changes and has the potential to boost business model innovation. This paper recognizes organizational learning as a mediating mechanism that transforms corporate social capital into business model innovation. Using survey data collected from 164 Chinese firms, we tested the relationship between corporate social capital and business model innovation, as well as the mediating effect of organizational learning. Our findings clearly show how corporate social capital flows through organizational learning efforts to business model innovation.