PTTrust, innovation and results in Mozambique
In a country where institutions inspire little trust, knowing whom you can count on inside the company may make a difference. With 70 professionals from private companies in Maputo, the dissertation asks whether these ties improve results, and by which path. Explained in 12 screens.
In Mozambique, companies grow in a difficult, low-trust environment
Mozambique lies in south-eastern Africa, with its capital in Maputo. The dissertation describes a market with little access to technology, a low-skilled workforce, unpredictable rules and low trust. In this setting, ties between people may make up for part of what institutions do not provide. Tap each number:
Figures cited in section 3.3 of the dissertation (Guitarrara, 2025; World Bank, 2025). The columns show economic growth in 2023 and 2024.
Ties inside the company have three sides, and all three weigh almost the same
Social capital is the value that comes from relationships: knowing who knows what, being able to count on colleagues and wanting the same things. The dissertation measured three sides of it, with questions adapted from Allameh (2018). Tap a column:
Height = weight of each side in social capital (loading from 0 to 1) in the final model, Figure 13. Definitions from section 3.4.1; questions summarised from the questionnaire (Appendix B), answered on 5- or 6-point scales.
Innovation capability has five faces, and improving processes weighs the most
Innovation capability is a company’s readiness to keep adopting new ideas, technologies and processes. Wang and Ahmed (2004) split it into five faces, and the dissertation used their questions. Tap a column:
Height = weight of each face in innovation capability (loading from 0 to 1), Figure 13. Questions from Appendix B (Table 3), answered from 1 (strongly disagree) to 6 (strongly agree).
70 professionals from private companies in Maputo answered
The author ran the survey remotely, from Brazil, with a Google Forms questionnaire. Each person answered about their own company: the ties between colleagues, the way it innovates and how its 2024 results compared with 2023. The answers were analysed with structural equation modelling (PLS-SEM), which measures links between ideas that cannot be observed directly.
Sections 3.1, 3.2 and 4.1. The minimum of 81 came from G*Power; the author considers that, as an experimental sample, the 70 responses met the study’s goals. Analysis in SmartPLS 4.
Percentages from Table 1. Each dot is a response; the dots round the percentages to 70 people (our calculation). The dissertation does not say how many different companies the responses came from.
In the answers, innovation and results sit in the middle of the scale
Before the links, the snapshot. On average, people only slightly agreed with the statements about innovation, more with those on process and behaviour than with those on product and market. And they said that 2024 results were between “stayed the same” and “rose a little” compared with 2023. Switch the scale:
The dissertation made four bets, and the last one has two parts
Performance was measured by comparing 2024 with 2023 on revenue, return, margins and overall performance. Before seeing the results, bet on each hypothesis. Your bets show up on the scoreboard on screen 10.
Model from Figure 8 and hypotheses from section 2.4. Mediation: the effect passes through innovation. Moderation: innovation changes the strength of the direct link between ties and performance.
Ties reach results by way of innovation
On its own, social capital is linked to performance (0.424). When innovation capability enters the model, this direct arrow drops to 0.095 and no longer has a clear effect. Ties are linked to innovation (0.631), and innovation to performance (0.521). The dissertation calls this full mediation. Switch the model:
Figures 12 and 13 and section 4.3. β = standardised coefficient (0.424 and 0.631 significant at 1%; 0.095 not significant at 5%). Effect through innovation: 0.631 × 0.521 ≈ 0.329, and 0.329 + 0.095 = 0.424, the same as the ties-only model (our calculations; the dissertation does not report a statistical test of this indirect effect). R² of performance: 18.0% → 34.4%; of innovation: 39.9%.
Innovation is a bridge, not an amplifier
The second part of the fourth bet was different: in more innovative companies, ties would pay off more (moderation). Move the slider and compare the illustration of the hypothesis with what the data showed:
If the hypothesis were right
What the data showed
Lines recalculated by us from the moderation model (Figure 14, path coefficients): performance = 0.610 × innovation + 0.173 × ties − 0.009 × ties × innovation. The interaction (−0.009) is not significant (section 4.3). Axes in standard deviations, from −2 to +2. In the left panel, the slopes are made up.
Four of the five bets were confirmed
Ties are linked to performance (H1) and to innovation (H3); innovation is linked to performance (H2) and bridges the two (H4, mediation). Only moderation was not confirmed. Tap a column or a card to compare with your bet:
H1: Figure 12 (ties-only model). H2, H3 and mediation: Figure 13 (for mediation, the column shows the effect through innovation, 0.631 × 0.521, our calculation). Moderation: Figure 14. Height = β, without the sign. Confirmed = as the dissertation states.
Investing in trust pays more when the company turns ties into innovation
For the author, investing in social capital is strategic, but not enough: relationships need to turn into learning, shared knowledge and actual innovation.
For company managers
- Build structures, processes and a culture that favour innovation: encouraging experimentation, supporting creativity, tolerating mistakes and learning-oriented leadership. (author)
- Go beyond promoting networks and trust: create conditions for these relationships to become shared knowledge. (author)
For companies in fragile markets
- In markets with fragile institutions, such as Mozambique’s, cooperation between companies can help overcome shortages of resources and infrastructure. (author)
- Our reading: the survey measured ties between colleagues within each company; cooperation between companies is the extension the author proposes, not something the questionnaire tested.
For public policy
- Programmes that foster business networks, partnerships, clusters and collaborative environments, together with incentives for innovation, as a way to promote sustainable economic development. (author)
What this research does not say
- Small sample. 70 responses, below the 81 calculated for the analysis; the findings cannot be safely generalised. · according to the author
- Only Maputo. Companies in other regions of the country may be different. · according to the author
- A single moment. The questionnaire was applied once: it shows what goes together, not what causes what over time. · according to the author
- Perceptions. Ties, innovation and results are what each person reported, without the companies’ accounting data. · according to the author
- The path through innovation. Mediation was read from the drop in the direct arrow; a statistical test of the indirect effect does not appear in the dissertation. · our observation
Next steps suggested by the author: larger samples from other regions, studies over time, other factors (culture, leadership, absorptive capacity) and comparisons between countries.
Credits
LOPES, Joaquim Martins José. A relação entre capital social e capacidade para inovação no desempenho das organizações em Moçambique. Master’s dissertation in Business Administration, Universidade Presbiteriana Mackenzie, São Paulo, 2025. Advisor: Prof. Dr. Silvio Popadiuk.
Dissertation approved on 10 December 2025, with support from CAPES (the Brazilian federal agency for graduate education). Questionnaire analysed in SmartPLS 4. This version simplifies the work for a general audience.