The Influence of Corporate Networks on the Competitive Advantage of High Technology Enterprises in China: The Mediating Effects of Dynamic Capacities and Ambidextrous Combination

• Main Authors: Huayun Wang, Zhuoran Zhang
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: MDPI AG 2021-08-01
• Series: International Journal of Financial Studies
• Subjects: corporate network; dynamic capabilities; ambidextrous combination; competitive advantage; multigroup analysis
• Online Access: https://www.mdpi.com/2227-7072/9/3/42

As an essential channel to obtain external resources and information, corporate networks have played a key role in enhancing the competitive advantage of firms, especially during the period where most of the high-technology firms in China started to directly seek means other than import technology to boost their competitive advantages. However, there was still ambiguity concerning how exactly corporate networks would affect comparative advantage. This study sought to expose the internal mechanisms among two aspects of corporate networks, namely, the network strength and the network centrality, and competitive advantage. We also examined the mediating effects of the dynamic capabilities and the ambidextrous combination. Managers of 384 high technology enterprises in China were interviewed via telephone calls during the period of January to June 2020. The data were analyzed by utilizing the structural equation method, and the results show that both dynamic capacities and the ambidextrous combination significantly mediate the relationship between corporate networks and firms’ comparative advantage, where the two mediators also had a significant relationship with each other. Moreover, the multigroup analysis also unveiled that the corporate networks had a greater impact on competitive advantage and the ambidextrous combination in the manufacturing sector, while small-sized enterprises and service enterprises would benefit more than others from the improvement in the dynamic capabilities and ambidextrous combination. Our findings fill the gap in the literature and provide useful information to firms in China on how to allocate internal and external resources to enhance their competitive advantages.