Management Decision

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to explore the multi-dimensions of social capital and to explore the relationships among individuals, social groups, and firms, establishing the perspective of relations for competition strategies and implementation.

Design/methodology/approach – In this study, samples were selected from the legislative election of 2008 conducted in Taiwan, and focused on the candidates' competition strategies in the five major cities with the highest population density in Taiwan.

Findings – The findings in this study indicate that the relationship among the three main external networks supports the curvilinear effect for gathering fundraising activities/contributions for the election. However, the impact of the number of votes obtained only reveals positive statistical significance on the part of individuals, not of firms and groups, despite the indication of a positive relationship.

Research limitations/implications – The limitation of this study is that only the election of members for the Legislative Yuan in Taiwan is used. The study could be further extended to look into other types of elections, such as the election of representatives and councilors for the counties and also the presidential election. A comparative analysis for different types of elections could also be performed to find out whether there are any other different implications for the election strategies.

Practical implications – It is realized only through members' levels of collective goal orientation and shared trust, which create value by facilitating successful collective action.

Originality/value – There are very few discussions of the multidimensional treatments of social relationships when applying to competition strategies. The paper fills a gap in the social network study literature and also offers an important network implication for the formulation of strategy and the allocation of resources.