Inter-organizational social capital of firms in developing economies and industry 4.0 readiness: the role of innovative capability and absorptive capacity

Najam ul Zia (), Ladislav Burita () and Yumei Yang ()
Additional contact information
Najam ul Zia: Tomas Bata University in Zlin
Ladislav Burita: University of Defense in Brno
Yumei Yang: Bournemouth University

Review of Managerial Science, 2023, vol. 17, issue 2, No 10, 682 pages

Abstract: Abstract The globalization of markets provides opportunities for firms to collaborate on various activities. These collaborations are the resource of social capital for firms to achieve sustainable competitiveness. This study aims to investigate how social capital (i.e., structural, relational, and cognitive social capital) between firms in a developing economy and developed economy strengthens their innovation capability and enhance their industry 4.0 readiness. Using Smart PLS-SEM to analyse the data collected from 320 managers representing 81 manufacturing firms in Pakistan, we found that social capital is positively associated with industry 4.0 readiness, and innovative capability mediates this relationship. The study contributes to the existing knowledge of understanding industry 4.0 readiness and provides useful insights for firms in developing economy to improves their innovation capability during the industry 4.0 era. This study likewise reveals the significance of three dimensions of social capital, which can facilitate to bring in digital knowledge from developed economies to developed economies to get ready for the fourth industrial revolution.

Keywords: Industry 4.0; Interorganizational social capital; Innovative capability; Absorptive capacity; Developing economy (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2023
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (3)

Downloads: (external link)
http://link.springer.com/10.1007/s11846-022-00539-3 Abstract (text/html)
Access to the full text of the articles in this series is restricted.

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:spr:rvmgts:v:17:y:2023:i:2:d:10.1007_s11846-022-00539-3

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
http://www.springer.com/business/journal/11846

DOI: 10.1007/s11846-022-00539-3

Access Statistics for this article

Review of Managerial Science is currently edited by R. Ewert and W. Kürsten

More articles in Review of Managerial Science from Springer
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Sonal Shukla () and Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing ().