979-8-3503-2709-0 /23/$31.00 ©2023 IEEE Technological competencies, social capital, and empirical study of high-tech Industries Fatemeh Saghafi Faculty of Management University of Tehran Tehran, Iran ORCID iD: https://orcid.org/0000- 0003-4843-6885 Mohammad Khakzadeh Faculty of Management University of Tehran Tehran, Iran ORCID iD: https://orcid.org/0000- 0002-9869-5730 Ali Mansouri Faculty of Management University of Tehran Tehran, Iran ORCID iD: https://orcid.org/ 0009- 0001-5683-2645 Hamed Ghiasvand Faculty of Management University of Tehran Tehran, Iran ORCID iD: https://orcid.org/ 0009- 0001-8558-4812 Abstract— Technology transformation has been happening with a great pace. Securing the firm competitive advantages is possible by focusing on the inner resources and competencies of the organization. In order to update technologies and acquire core competencies in high-tech industries, inter-firm collaborations become necessary. One prospective output of inter-firm technological collaboration is attaining first-order and second- order competencies. Moreover, previous studies showed that collaboration achievement depends on the proper level of social capital. This research evaluates the effects of social capital on the development of first-order and second-order competencies in knowledge-based collaborations as a high-tech industry. Three main forms of social capital are structural, cognitive, and relational; after that, the most important of them were distinguished by turbine experts using fuzzy Delphi. In the end, a model has been proposed for evaluating the impact of social capital on the development of first-order and secon d-order competencies. This research utilizes twelve components of social capital for assessment which, six of them are approved by fuzzy Delphi. These components can be utilized in prospective research for evaluating the impact of social capital on technological competencies. For structural dimension, collaboration node and collaboration durability have been chosen. For the cognitive dimension, common goals and common culture have been selected. And finally, for the relational dimension , trust and amiable relations have been chosen by turbine industry experts. These social capital factors are more effective on competencies than others. Keywords: resource-based approach, knowledge collaboration, first-order and second-order competencies, social capital I. INTRODUCTION Nowadays, peripheral changes happen at a great pace , faster than the ability of predict their mainline or results precisely; or get ready to cope with them. Hereby, the organizations should adopt the appropriate strategi es for facing the challenges of the mentioned changes usin g the inner resources. Vital resources in this era are knowledge resources. Managers can perform some tasks better than rivals by focusing on the inner resources of an organization, rearranging the connection among the resources, and creating connections between their resources and assets [1]. The technological competency of an organization is the primary driver of being progressive in a competitive atmosphere. As such, every competency expires in the evolutionary circumstances, and organizations must reconsider their competency port folio [2]. The capability of acquiring new capabilities is called dynamic capability. Dynamic capability is defined as the capability of organize, build and rearrange the inner and outer components in order to utilize the phenomenal change waves. The existence of dynamic capabilities for gaining new technological capabilities in an organization can guarantee a competitive advantage in an evolving peripheral [4]. Organizations are obliged to collaborate together to have access to required and complement resources. The increasing demand of the market for high-tech products and the pressure of technological evolution caused producing new products in a shorter time and shrinking the life curve of technologies and products. Generally, knowledge collaboration makes the chance of acquiring and transferring the technological and knowledge resources for both sides of collaboration However, possessing a high level of social capital is necessary for the meaningful performance of a collaboration network. Social capital is a concept that permeates to organizational theories from social sciences ,which refers to the relations of social components that facilitate their cooperation [5]. In this study, the relations among dimensions of social capital and first-order and second-order competences in technological collaboration are studied. Needless to say, only a few researches have been done on the relations between social capital and technological collaboration. Also, previous studies only have defined these concepts and have not measured any of them. Therefore, the first objective of this research is to know about the components and elements of social capital dimensions (Structural, Cognitive, and relational). Its second objective is determining the most effective social capital elements on first-order and second- order competences. By answering these two questions, we can have an initial model for the impact assessment of social capital on technological competences. First of all, the literature is reviewed, and the components are extracted. In the following, the results of the Delphi method are demonstrated; and at the end, findings and the proposed model will be presented. II. L ITERATURE REVIEW Relevant concepts of this study were explained briefly in this section. Resource-based approach modifies the companies as a portfolio of resources and technological competences. Technological competences acquisition applies developing 2023 IEEE International Conference on Engineering Technologies and Applied Sciences (ICETAS)