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臺大管理論叢
第
27
卷第
3
期
139
phone (cell-phone) service industry before 1999, covering industry activities before and after
widespread cell-phone adoption. The industry is an ideal empirical setting because from its
beginning in 1983, it has included (1) the frequent exit and entry of a group of heterogeneous
firms on the supply side, (2) more than six changes in the technology standard of mobile
telecommunications, and (3) a shift from primarily 35 to 50 year-old professional,
managerial customers to the general public. Three types of managers’ ties to other
organizations are examined in this paper: ties to an intra-industry association, competitors,
and firms outside the industry. Empirical findings reveal that managers’ ties to the Cellular
Telecommunications Industry Association (CTIA) and intra-industry competitors positively
moderate the effect of their intra-industry experience on an entrant’s new subscribers.
However, the positive moderating effect of ties to the CTIA significantly decreased as the
industry aged. In addition, managers’ ties to firms outside the cell-phone service industry did
not moderate the relationship between their intra-industry experience and an entrant’s new
subscribers.
This paper’s results reveal that not all external ties of managers are valuable to firm
performance in an emerging industry. Managers’ ties to intra-industry associations and
competitors are in general helpful to firms in finding opportunities or avoiding threats.
However, the value of external ties to industry associations does not sustain in an emerging
industry. The findings could guide managers to manage external ties strategically.
2. Literature Review on Social Capital
The source of social capital lies in the social relations within which the individual actor
is located (Adler and Kwon, 2002). Like human capital, individuals’ social capital is one
productive resource of their organizations (Castanias and Helfat, 2001), and it influences the
process of resource combination and exchange by governing the opportunity, motivation, and
ability of social interaction between individuals and their contacts (Nahapiet and Ghoshal,
1998; Adler and Kwon, 2002). Generally, a prospective donor without network ties to the
recipients, motivation to contribute, and requisite competences or resources would not be a
source of social capital (Adler and Kwon, 2002).
Theoretically, the benefits of social capital to the actors, and subsequently to their
organizations, include facilitating access to more in-depth sources of information, improving
information quality, relevance, and timeliness, increasing the ability to get things down, and
enhancing solidarity and legitimacy (Stuart et al., 1999; Adler and Kwon, 2002).
Furthermore, the social capital of managers’ ties to other organizations can strengthen