Abstract
Drawing from the social capital theory, we theorize the importance of the information provisioning role of the top management team's (TMT's) social capital, commonly called guanxi, in the speed of due diligence in technology acquisitions. We argue that social capital derived through the TMT's interpersonal ties brings the advantages of trust, reliability, and speed of information, which can potentially expedite the task of evaluating target technology firms. In addition, we take the contingency view of social capital theory to build the case that contextual factors, including TMT tenure and equity control, can limit the efficacy of TMT social capital. We contribute to the literature by focusing on TMT's social capital, which is constitutive in entrepreneurial actions such as technology mergers and acquisitions. Using data from 616 Chinese technology acquisitions during 2006–2015, we find empirical support for our hypotheses.