Expanding the two wings of social capital for value creation: strategic entrepreneurship of HTC, 1997–2008

ABSTRACT

This study draws on a historical, qualitative case study to explore how a leading Taiwanese high-tech mobile phone manufacturer, HTC, successfully and continuously manoeuvred the two wings of social capital – that is, structural social capital and cognitive social capital – to create value in its strategic entrepreneurial process between 1997 and 2008. Taiwan is a wide-spreading trust-based Chinese Confucian-influenced culture. The process of developing trust-based social capital for value creation consists of three central actions: identifying potential social capital, reinforcing cognitive social capital, and extending structural social capital. Our findings advance knowledge of trust-based social capital based on the perspective of strategic entrepreneurship for value creation and offer practical implications for the mobilisation of social capital. In sum, we suggest that firms could develop trust-based social capital considering business conditions to reduce possible risks or uncertainties of network management in an international arena.

KEYWORDS:

• Trust-based social capital
• strategic entrepreneurship
• HTC

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes on contributors

Dr. Tzu-Hsin Liu is an Associate Professor and the Chairman at Department of Business and Management, College of Management, National University of Tainan, Taiwan. He received his doctorate in Industrial Engineering and Engineering Innovation Management from National Tsing Hua University, Taiwan. His current research interests include strategic management and entrepreneurial management. He has published papers in Total Quality Management and Business Excellence, Technological Forecasting & Social Change, Internet Research: Electronic Networking Applications and Policy, International Journal of Technology Management, International Journal of Industrial Ergonomics and other Chinese academic journals.

Dr. Shih-Hui Lo is an Associate Professor at Department of Business Administration, the Director of Ph.D. programme and Vice Dean of College of Management, Da-Yeh University, Taiwan. He received his MBA degree and Ph.D. in Business Administration from National Sun Yet-Sen University, Taiwan. He also is the founded chairman of Chinese System Dynamics Society. His current research interests include strategic management, systems thinking and organisational learning. He has published papers in some Chinese academic journals.

Miss Chih-Yin Dai is an Associate Manager at Industrial Safety and Health Association of the R.O.C. in Taiwan. She received her master degree in Business Administration from DaYeh University in Taiwan. Her current research interests include innovation management and human resource management. She has extensive practical experience in the field of educational training of the Industrial Safety and Health.