Social capital and knowledge transfer in new service development: The front/back office perspective

Abstract

The linkage of front and back office operations significantly influences the performance of new service development. Through a multi-case study of four regional banks in China, we explored the influencing mechanisms relating to knowledge transfer between front office and back office in new service development. We confirmed that the structural dimension of social capital (tie strength) strongly influences knowledge transfer performance through knowledge transfer opportunity, the cognitive dimension (common cognition) influences knowledge transfer through transfer capability, and the relational dimension (trust relation) exerts its influence through transfer willingness. Structural and relational social capital each has significant influence on knowledge transfer, which supports the view of the organizational system school in services. This study indicates that a service firm should build and utilize both "hard" and "soft" social capital simultaneously, so it is important to recognize customers' needs based on daily interaction through knowledge transfer from the front office.