IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/gam/jsusta/v14y2022i11p6904-d832220.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

The Influence of Relational Capital on the Sustainability Risk: Findings from Chinese Non-State-Owned Manufacturing Enterprises

Author

Listed:
  • Dongsheng Zhang

    (School of Economics and Management, Hebei University of Technology, Tianjin 300401, China)

  • Hongwei Wang

    (School of Economics and Management, Hebei University of Technology, Tianjin 300401, China)

  • Wenfu Wang

    (School of Economics and Management, Hebei University of Technology, Tianjin 300401, China)

Abstract

During the COVID-19 pandemic, the global economy fluctuated while the Chinese economy remained relatively stable—a distinction that has aroused people’s curiosity about the unique operation of Chinese enterprises. Compared with the regularity and competitiveness of traditional market strategy theory, Chinese business management pays more attention to informal institutions and relational capital, which is one of the key features that distinguishes Chinese firms from their Western counterparts. Yet, theoretical research on relational capital against the Chinese cultural background remains scarce, and the particularity laws of the socialist market economy are still unclear. Based on the social capital theory, this paper redefines the concept of relational capital in the context of China and uses factor analysis to construct a relational capital measurement index. On this basis, non-state-owned manufacturing enterprises are then used as a sample to explore the interactive relationship between relational capital and sustainability risk. The empirical results show that relational capital can effectively reduce sustainability risk and ensure sustainable operation. In addition, enterprise growth, enterprise development, and marketization can strengthen the role of relational capital and positively regulate the relationship between relational capital and sustainability risk. This paper innovatively constructs the concept and index system of relational capital in the Chinese context, which is the perfection of relational capital theory. At the same time, it verifies the impact of relational capital on business sustainability, revises the correct cognition of relational capital, and supplements the deficiencies of the extant social socialist market economy research. Supported by both theoretical research and empirical conclusions, corresponding management suggestions are put forward for enterprises, governments, and managers to scientifically guide management practice and provide new ideas for future Chinese-style economic research.

Suggested Citation

  • Dongsheng Zhang & Hongwei Wang & Wenfu Wang, 2022. "The Influence of Relational Capital on the Sustainability Risk: Findings from Chinese Non-State-Owned Manufacturing Enterprises," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(11), pages 1-18, June.
    • Handle: RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:14:y:2022:i:11:p:6904-:d:832220
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/14/11/6904/pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/14/11/6904/
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. repec:bla:jfinan:v:43:y:1988:i:3:p:567-91 is not listed on IDEAS
    2. Daniel Erian Armanios & Charles E. Eesley & Jizhen Li & Kathleen M. Eisenhardt, 2017. "How entrepreneurs leverage institutional intermediaries in emerging economies to acquire public resources," Strategic Management Journal, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 38(7), pages 1373-1390, July.
    3. Hayashi, Fumio & Inoue, Tohru, 1991. "The Relation between Firm Growth and Q with Multiple Capital Goods: Theory and Evidence from Panel Data on Japanese Firms," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 59(3), pages 731-753, May.
    4. Dittmar, Amy & Mahrt-Smith, Jan & Servaes, Henri, 2003. "International Corporate Governance and Corporate Cash Holdings," Journal of Financial and Quantitative Analysis, Cambridge University Press, vol. 38(1), pages 111-133, March.
    5. Wu, Fang & Cavusgil, S. Tamer, 2006. "Organizational learning, commitment, and joint value creation in interfirm relationships," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 59(1), pages 81-89, January.
    6. Xueying Tian & Chunyang Zhao & Xiaochun Ge, 2022. "Entrepreneurial Traits, Relational Capital, and Social Enterprise Performance: Regulatory Effects of Cognitive Legitimacy," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(6), pages 1-22, March.
    7. Steven M. Fazzari & R. Glenn Hubbard & Bruce C. Petersen, 1988. "Financing Constraints and Corporate Investment," Brookings Papers on Economic Activity, Economic Studies Program, The Brookings Institution, vol. 19(1), pages 141-206.
    8. Andres Trujillo-Barrera & Joost M. E. Pennings & Dianne Hofenk, 2016. "Understanding producers' motives for adopting sustainable practices: the role of expected rewards, risk perception and risk tolerance," European Review of Agricultural Economics, Oxford University Press and the European Agricultural and Applied Economics Publications Foundation, vol. 43(3), pages 359-382.
    9. Li, Eldon Y. & Liao, Chien Hsiang & Yen, Hsiuju Rebecca, 2013. "Co-authorship networks and research impact: A social capital perspective," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 42(9), pages 1515-1530.
    10. Subramony, Mahesh & Segers, Jesse & Chadwick, Clint & Shyamsunder, Aarti, 2018. "Leadership development practice bundles and organizational performance: The mediating role of human capital and social capital," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 83(C), pages 120-129.
    11. Jensen, Michael C. & Meckling, William H., 1976. "Theory of the firm: Managerial behavior, agency costs and ownership structure," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 3(4), pages 305-360, October.
    12. Giannakis, Mihalis & Papadopoulos, Thanos, 2016. "Supply chain sustainability: A risk management approach," International Journal of Production Economics, Elsevier, vol. 171(P4), pages 455-470.
    13. Prashant Kale & Harbir Singh & Howard Perlmutter, 2000. "Learning and protection of proprietary assets in strategic alliances: building relational capital," Strategic Management Journal, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 21(3), pages 217-237, March.
    14. Wenxi Yan & Eduardo Schiehll & Maureen I. Muller-Kahle, 2019. "Human and relational capital behind the structural power of CEOs in Chinese listed firms," Asia Pacific Journal of Management, Springer, vol. 36(3), pages 715-743, September.
    15. Davatgaran, Vahid & Saniei, Mohsen & Mortazavi, Seyed Saeidollah, 2018. "Optimal bidding strategy for an energy hub in energy market," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 148(C), pages 482-493.
    16. G. Agiomirgianakis & F. Voulgaris & T. Papadogonas, 2006. "Financial factors affecting profitability and employment growth: the case of Greek manufacturing," International Journal of Financial Services Management, Inderscience Enterprises Ltd, vol. 1(2/3), pages 232-242.
    17. Roberta Capello & Alessandra Faggian, 2005. "Collective Learning and Relational Capital in Local Innovation Processes," Regional Studies, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 39(1), pages 75-87.
    18. Hannes Hofmann & Christian Busse & Christoph Bode & Michael Henke, 2014. "Sustainability‐Related Supply Chain Risks: Conceptualization and Management," Business Strategy and the Environment, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 23(3), pages 160-172, March.
    19. Altman, Edward I. & Haldeman, Robert G. & Narayanan, P., 1977. "ZETATM analysis A new model to identify bankruptcy risk of corporations," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 1(1), pages 29-54, June.
    20. Edward I. Altman, 1968. "Financial Ratios, Discriminant Analysis And The Prediction Of Corporate Bankruptcy," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 23(4), pages 589-609, September.
    21. Hélène Vidot, 2006. "Opportunism and unilateral commitment: The moderating effect of relational capital," Post-Print hal-00155627, HAL.
    22. Kotabe, Masaaki & Jiang, Crystal Xiangwen & Murray, Janet Y., 2011. "Managerial ties, knowledge acquisition, realized absorptive capacity and new product market performance of emerging multinational companies: A case of China," Journal of World Business, Elsevier, vol. 46(2), pages 166-176, April.
    23. Edward I. Altman, 1968. "The Prediction Of Corporate Bankruptcy: A Discriminant Analysis," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 23(1), pages 193-194, March.
    24. Jesko Schulte & Carolina Villamil & Sophie I. Hallstedt, 2020. "Strategic Sustainability Risk Management in Product Development Companies: Key Aspects and Conceptual Approach," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(24), pages 1-20, December.
    25. Caers, Ralf & Du Bois, Cindy & Jegers, Marc & De Gieter, Sara & De Cooman, Rein & Pepermans, Roland, 2009. "A micro-economic perspective on manager selection in nonprofit organizations," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 192(1), pages 173-197, January.
    26. Lee, Gilsoo & Cho, Sam Yul & Arthurs, Jonathan & Lee, Eun Kyung, 2019. "CEO pay inequity, CEO-TMT pay gap, and acquisition premiums," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 98(C), pages 105-116.
    27. Thomas Dyllick & Kai Hockerts, 2002. "Beyond the business case for corporate sustainability," Business Strategy and the Environment, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 11(2), pages 130-141, March.
    28. MARA FACCIO & RONALD W. MASULIS & JOHN J. McCONNELL, 2006. "Political Connections and Corporate Bailouts," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 61(6), pages 2597-2635, December.
    29. Frank Krysiak, 2009. "Risk Management as a Tool for Sustainability," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 85(3), pages 483-492, April.
    30. Kothari, S.P. & Leone, Andrew J. & Wasley, Charles E., 2005. "Performance matched discretionary accrual measures," Journal of Accounting and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 39(1), pages 163-197, February.
    31. Lee, Lucy Sojung & Zhong, Weiguo, 2020. "Opportunism, Identification Asymmetry, and Firm Performance in Chinese Interorganizational Relationships," Management and Organization Review, Cambridge University Press, vol. 16(4), pages 825-865, October.
    32. Cullen, John B. & Johnson, Jean L. & Sakano, Tomoaki, 2000. "Success through commitment and trust: the soft side of strategic alliance management," Journal of World Business, Elsevier, vol. 35(3), pages 223-240.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. AlQershi, Nagwan & Saufi, Roselina Binti Ahmad & Ismail, Noor Azizi & Mohamad, Mohd Rosli Bin & Ramayah, T. & Muhammad, Nik Maheran Nik & Yusoff, Mohd Nor Hakimin Bin, 2023. "The moderating role of market turbulence beyond the Covid-19 pandemic and Russia-Ukraine crisis on the relationship between intellectual capital and business sustainability," Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Elsevier, vol. 186(PB).
    2. Magdalena Zioło & Iwona Bąk & Anna Spoz, 2023. "Incorporating ESG Risk in Companies’ Business Models: State of Research and Energy Sector Case Studies," Energies, MDPI, vol. 16(4), pages 1-25, February.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Pindado, Julio & Rodrigues, Luis & de la Torre, Chabela, 2008. "How do insolvency codes affect a firm's investment?," International Review of Law and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 28(4), pages 227-238, December.
    2. Aggarwal, Raj & Zong, Sijing, 2006. "The cash flow-investment relationship: International evidence of limited access to external finance," Journal of Multinational Financial Management, Elsevier, vol. 16(1), pages 89-104, February.
    3. Lin, Hsiou-Wei William & Lo, Huai-Chun & Wu, Ruei-Shian, 2016. "Modeling default prediction with earnings management," Pacific-Basin Finance Journal, Elsevier, vol. 40(PB), pages 306-322.
    4. Quader, Syed Manzur, 2017. "Differential effect of liquidity constraints on firm growth," Review of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 32(C), pages 20-29.
    5. Heidi Quah & Janto Haman & Dharmendra Naidu, 2021. "The effect of stock liquidity on investment efficiency under financing constraints and asymmetric information: Evidence from the United States," Accounting and Finance, Accounting and Finance Association of Australia and New Zealand, vol. 61(S1), pages 2109-2150, April.
    6. Mansi, Sattar A. & Qi, Yaxuan & Wald, John K., 2021. "Bond covenants, bankruptcy risk, and the cost of debt," Journal of Corporate Finance, Elsevier, vol. 66(C).
    7. Syed Manzur Quader, 2017. "Differential effect of liquidity constraints on firm growth," Review of Financial Economics, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 32(1), pages 20-29, January.
    8. Hansen, Sten, 1999. "Agency Costs, Credit Constraints and Corporate Investment," Working Paper Series 79, Sveriges Riksbank (Central Bank of Sweden).
    9. Fargher, Neil & Wee, Marvin, 2019. "The impact of Ball and Brown (1968) on generations of research," Pacific-Basin Finance Journal, Elsevier, vol. 54(C), pages 55-72.
    10. Ahrends, Meike & Drobetz, Wolfgang & Puhan, Tatjana Xenia, 2018. "Cyclicality of growth opportunities and the value of cash holdings," Journal of Financial Stability, Elsevier, vol. 37(C), pages 74-96.
    11. Pryshchepa, Oksana & Aretz, Kevin & Banerjee, Shantanu, 2013. "Can investors restrict managerial behavior in distressed firms?," Journal of Corporate Finance, Elsevier, vol. 23(C), pages 222-239.
    12. Ben-Nasr, Hamdi, 2016. "State and foreign ownership and the value of working capital management," Journal of Corporate Finance, Elsevier, vol. 41(C), pages 217-240.
    13. Viral Acharya & Sergei A. Davydenko & Ilya A. Strebulaev, 2012. "Cash Holdings and Credit Risk," The Review of Financial Studies, Society for Financial Studies, vol. 25(12), pages 3572-3609.
    14. Rajkovic, Tijana, 2020. "Lead independent directors and investment efficiency," Journal of Corporate Finance, Elsevier, vol. 64(C).
    15. Zhang, Mingming & Tao, Qizhi & Shen, Fei & Li, Ziyang, 2022. "Social capital and CEO involuntary turnover," International Review of Economics & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 78(C), pages 338-354.
    16. Devos, Erik & Huang, Jianning & Zhou, Fuzhao, 2021. "The effects of corporate name changes on firm information environment and earnings management," International Review of Financial Analysis, Elsevier, vol. 77(C).
    17. Ciampi, Francesco, 2015. "Corporate governance characteristics and default prediction modeling for small enterprises. An empirical analysis of Italian firms," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 68(5), pages 1012-1025.
    18. Farinha, Jorge & Mateus, Cesario & Soares, Nuno, 2018. "Cash holdings and earnings quality: evidence from the Main and Alternative UK markets," International Review of Financial Analysis, Elsevier, vol. 56(C), pages 238-252.
    19. Burak Güner, A. & Malmendier, Ulrike & Tate, Geoffrey, 2008. "Financial expertise of directors," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 88(2), pages 323-354, May.
    20. Schauer, Catharina & Elsas, Ralf & Breitkopf, Nikolas, 2019. "A new measure of financial constraints applicable to private and public firms," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 101(C), pages 270-295.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:14:y:2022:i:11:p:6904-:d:832220. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: MDPI Indexing Manager (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.mdpi.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.