How social activities affect corporate credit behavior? – the mediating role of network centrality
Industrial Management & Data Systems
ISSN: 0263-5577
Article publication date: 19 June 2023
Issue publication date: 27 June 2023
Abstract
Purpose
Social information is crucial to credit ratings and can improve the accuracy of the traditional credit assessment model. Drawing on the resource-based view (RBV) and social capital theory (SCT), this research explores the relationships between corporate social activities, network centrality and corporate credit behavior.
Design/methodology/approach
The authors used social network analysis (SNA) and regression analysis to analyze the data collected from 14,544 enterprises on the Alibaba platform.
Findings
The results indicate that among the four types of social activities, the number of corporate questions and posts shows a positive relationship with credit behavior; while the number of corporate comments has negative relationship with credit behavior. Further, degree and betweenness centralities mediate the relationship between the number of corporate questions, posts and comments with credit behavior.
Originality/value
This study contributes to the literature on non-financial factors (soft information) by exploring the social behavioral factors related to corporate credit. In addition, this study offers a new theoretical lens and reasonable explanations for investigating the relationship between corporate social activities, network centrality and credit behavior from the perspective of the resource-based view, while most studies are predictive and methodological. Moreover, this study provides new insights for platforms to evaluate enterprise credit and for managers to improve credit behavior.
Keywords
Acknowledgements
Xin Chen: Conceptualization; Methodology; Writing – Original Draft.
Wenli Li: Writing – Review; Funding acquisition; Supervision.
This work was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (NSFC) [Project No. 71874022]. This paper is developed from our research-in-progress manuscript presented in PACIS 2020 as “The Influence of Corporate Social Behaviors on Credit—An Empirical Analysis”, proceedings of the 24th Pacific Asia Conference on Information Systems.
Citation
Chen, X. and Li, W. (2023), "How social activities affect corporate credit behavior? – the mediating role of network centrality", Industrial Management & Data Systems, Vol. 123 No. 7, pp. 1936-1960. https://doi.org/10.1108/IMDS-10-2022-0586
Publisher
:Emerald Publishing Limited
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