Under the complex external environment of the economic and social transition period, how can Chinese private enterprises adjust their business strategies, seek long-term development, and created world-renowned economic achievements in the face of fierce market competition? Based on the perspective of traditional Chinese culture, this paper examines the influence of social capital on the strategic orientation of private enterprises. This study uses the 7 rounds of Chinese Private Enterprise Survey (CPES) as the research sample. We find that social capital eases the resource constraints of enterprises, but also forces enterprises to continue to invest in relationships, and at the same time promotes innovation strategies and relationships strategy of private enterprises. Traditional Chinese culture regulates this role, promoting companies'' innovation strategies and weakening relational strategies. Further research finds that a highly competitive environment is more likely to stimulate corporate strategic change, but the cultural conflict caused by foreign culture shock weakens the influence of traditional culture. The mechanism test found that social capital supported the strategic investment of private enterprises by easing financing constraints. Then we find that relational strategic investment improves the short-term performance of firms, but there is an inverted U-shaped nonlinear relationship. The above results still hold after instrumental variable regression and a series of robustness tests. The above findings extend research on firm behavior in informal institutions and provide empirical evidence for explaining the strategic behavior of private firms in the Chinese context.