Abstract: As the main bridge to connect enterprise with external environment, board of directors provide convenient access for enterprise to obtain key information and crucial resources. Therefore, board of directors play a key role in selecting, formulating and implementing the corporation strategy decisions. Resource dependence theory believes that board of directors’ social capital leads the board managing the enterprises, offering them advice and affects their suggestions and resources. The data of GEM listed companies during 2010 to 2014 was collected as a sample for empirical analysis. This paper investigates the relationship between R&D investment and board social capital which is divided into political connection and business connection.Although directors who possess social capital can provide resources needed for R&D, they also need motivation to perform these tasks effectively. Except for the boards, the CEO is also responsible to allocate the resources and make the strategic decisions. The CEO who owns the high power has the ability influencing the board’s decision making. Besides, the interaction between the CEO and board could affect the quality of the decision making. This article extends view of board dependence, and discusses CEO power's moderate influence between board social capital and R&D investmentWe found that: (1) There is a significant positive correlation between board business connection and R & D investment. (2) The board political connection is significantly negative on R&D investment; (3) With the spirit of the housekeeper, the high power of CEO is significantly negative moderate between board political connection and R&D investment.This paper’s main theoretical contributions indicated in the following areas: firstly, the existing research about impact of the board of directors on R&D investment has been expanded. The past researches always focused on the characteristics variable like board composition and board size, neglecting the vital role of board’s social capital. Using resource dependence theory to explain how the board affects R&D investment through the guidance and resources provided by the directors, exploits a new perspective on the relationship between board and R&D. Secondly, establishing a relationship between the board’s social capital, CEO power and R&D investment. It is suggested that when board social capital play resource providing role for R&D investment, the CEO power’s potential moderating effect should be considered. Empirical research about the impact of CEO power on board’s resources providing fills the gap between the board social capital and R&D investment. It has deepened the understanding of the relationship between the two and also filled a void in the literature on the relationship among the three.Thirdly, in response to previous research on how the CEO-Board relationship affects the board's resource-dependent role and strategic decision-making, we propose that board of directors need additional motivation to provide resources and clarify an important regulatory variable—CEO power. This is consistent with discussion about the deficiencies of previous resource-dependent theories, which neglected the importance of motivation in terms of board capital and resource allocation relationships. By demonstrating how CEO power influences the resource-dependent role of directors in R&D investment decisions, it not only supplements the literature on resource dependence theory, but also explores an important topic in the field of corporate governance research—the black box of the relationship between CEOs and directors, and also complements to the rising but still immature theory about how the CEO-board interaction impacts organizational achievement.Fourthly, the former studies about the agency theory mostly uses the directly obtained substitution variable like the ratio of internal board members to external board members, and reports a mixing result. Basing on different subjects enterprises establishing external relations with, we divides the board social capital into detailed dimensions, enriching the connotation and extension of the board social capital. In depth study about the impact of different relationships social capital is formed by, and it supplements the previous research on the overall impact of board’s social capital. This study provides suggestions and support for making full use of board social capital and CEO housekeeping spirit, and forming strategic alliances between board and CEO.

Key words: board social capital, CEO power, R&D investment