Leveraging Social Capital to Develop Blockchain Capability for Corporate Sustainability: A Mixed‐Methods Approach

ABSTRACT

Although blockchain is crucial for corporate sustainability, how to leverage social capital to develop blockchain capability and thereby improve sustainable performance remains unclear. Drawing on social capital theory and dynamic capability theory, we integrate quantitative and qualitative research into an explanatory sequential mixed‐methods design. In the first step, based on a survey of 203 enterprises, we find that internal social capital promotes sustainable performance; however, external social capital must be fully mediated by blockchain capability to improve sustainable performance. Furthermore, we reveal that corporate social responsibility (CSR) negatively moderates the relationship between internal social capital and blockchain capability. In the second step, we employ an in‐depth case study designed to elaborate on the underlying mechanisms behind the quantitative results and provide contextualized theoretical explanations for the unsupported hypotheses. Specifically, (1) we reveal that high levels of internal trust create trust redundancy, rendering blockchain technology superfluous for internal governance; (2) external social capital requires technological “solidification” through immutable digital tracking to prevent opportunism and trust leakage; and (3) high‐level CSR establishes institutional trust and brand reputation, which functionally substitute for the trust‐enhancing role of blockchain and lead to a resource crowding‐out effect. By integrating quantitative and qualitative findings, this study identifies a contingent substitution logic where CSR attenuates the conversion of internal social capital into blockchain capability, whereas external social capital appears to require technological “solidification” to translate into performance.