The research on how social capital facilitates knowledge sharing between individuals

Abstract

As the knowledge activity is always embedded in networks of social context, so the net structure relationship quality and common social cognition have an important impact on knowledge sharing effect. Based on reviewing the theory of social capital, we researched on how social capital facilitates knowledge sharing between individuals. Conclusions from theoretical study are as following. (1) Each Social capital variable (namely structure variable, relationship variable and cognitive variable) has significant influence on knowledge sharing. (2) There are inter-relationships among the variables of social capital. Structure variable has positive effect on relationship variable and cognitive variable. Cognitive variable has positive effect on relationship variable. (3) The knowledge tacit moderates the impact of social capital on knowledge sharing effect. © 2011 Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg.