It’s Not Who You Know—It’s Who Knows You : Employee Social Capital and Firm Performance

Research output: Conference Papers (RGC: 31A, 31B, 32, 33)32_Refereed conference paper (no ISBN/ISSN)peer-review

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Author(s)

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Detail(s)

Original languageEnglish
Publication statusPublished - 7 Jul 2021

Conference

Title2021 China International Conference in Finance (CICF)
LocationOnline and Onsite
PlaceChina
CityShanghai
Period6 - 9 July 2021

Abstract

We show that the social capital embedded in employees’ networks contributes to superior firm performance and provide evidence on the mechanism. Using data from a professional networking app, we measure a firm’s social capital derived from employees’ connections with external stakeholders. The directed nature of connections allows for identifying whether one party in a connection values the other more. Results show that firms with more employee social capital perform better. The positive effect arises primarily from employees being valued by others. We provide causal evidence by exploiting the enactment of an anti-graft act, which imparts a negative shock to networks.

Research Area(s)

  • Labor and finance, social capital, social connections, directed networks

Bibliographic Note

Research Unit(s) information for this publication is provided by the author(s) concerned.

Citation Format(s)

It’s Not Who You Know—It’s Who Knows You : Employee Social Capital and Firm Performance. / Cho, Duckki; Choi, Lyungmae; Hertzel, Michael et al.

2021. Paper presented at 2021 China International Conference in Finance (CICF), Shanghai, China.

Research output: Conference Papers (RGC: 31A, 31B, 32, 33)32_Refereed conference paper (no ISBN/ISSN)peer-review