Social capital, knowledge sharing, and innovation capability: an empirical study of R&D teams in Iran

ABSTRACT

Effectively encouraging employees to share valuable knowledge can increase and sustain a firm's competitive advantages. This study adopted an integrated approach to understand casual relationships among knowledge sharing (KS) enablers (social capital factors), mechanism of forming KS behaviours (knowledge collecting and knowledge donating) through individuals’ KS intention, and KS outcome (innovation capability) within research and development teams. The research model was developed by reviewing literature and tested with survey data collected from 230 employees in multiple companies in Iran. Results of partial least squares analysis indicated that social interaction ties (as a structural capital factor), trust, reciprocity, and team identification (as relational capital factors) significantly associated with KS intention. KS intention, in turn, was significantly related to KS behaviours (knowledge colleting and knowledge donating). In addition, findings revealed that members’ willingness to collect and donate knowledge can affect team innovation capability. This study also discusses the implications for fostering social capital and KS behaviours to enhance team innovation capability.

KEYWORDS:

• Knowledge sharing
• social capital
• innovation capability
• R&D teams
• Iran

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

ORCID

S. Mahdi Hosseini http://orcid.org/0000-0003-1705-6492

Notes on contributors

Peyman Akhavan is Associate Professor of System Management and Productivity in the Faculty of Management, Malek-Ashtar University of Technology. Akhavan received his Master and Ph.D. in Industrial Engineering from Iran University of Science and Technology. His research interests include KM, intellectual capital, organisational behaviour, and E-commerce. His works have been published in a number of journals including Journal Knowledge Management, Technovation, European Business Review, Journal of Knowledge Management Practice, Management Decision, International Journal of Industrial Engineering, etc. He is also Vice President of Iran Knowledge Management Association from 2012.

S. Mahdi Hosseini received a Bachelor of Industrial Engineering from K.N. Toosi University of Technology and an MBA degree from Malek-Ashtar University of Technology in Tehran. He is currently studying Ph.D. in Industrial Engineering at Malek-Ashtar University of Technology. His research interests include knowledge management, innovation management, knowledge networks, and intellectual capital management.