Examining the Role of Social Capital on New Product Development: Emphasizing the Mediating Role of entrepreneurial orientation in knowledge-based companies

Social Capital (SC) theory has gained increasing importance over the last few decades, showing the benefits derived from the firm's position in social network. Moreover, a firm's Social Capital facilitates the exploitation of innovative opportunities, enabling the discovery of new opportunities that As a result; it can have a positive impact on entrepreneurial orientation (EO). The present study seeks to examine the dimensions of social capital on the development of a new product, emphasizing the role of mediating entrepreneurial orientation in knowledge-based companies. This is an applied and descriptive study and has been performed by survey method. The statistical population of the research is the managers and assistants of the knowledge-based companies. For this purpose, 208 randomly selected individuals were selected. The questionnaire based on Likert spectrum was used in order to collect information and structural equation modeling was used to analyze the data. The results show that, from the dimensions of social capital, structural dimension has a negative effect on entrepreneurial orientation. Also, there was a positive and significant effect between the entrepreneurial orientation and new product development (NPD). Finally; Market orientation (MO) negatively affects the relationship between entrepreneurial orientation and NPD performance. According to the results obtained from the findings of this research, it can be concluded that if managers of knowledge-based companies can create a workplace with intimacy and trust and thus improve social capital, they can naturally lead to entrepreneurial tendencies in the staff and eventually in the company.