The Role of Social Capital in Knowledge Sharing and Creation of Intellectual Capital

Many economists now argue that Intellectual Capital is more likely to be the key source of a firm’s competitive advantage than tangible resources. Hence, leveraging knowledge is often the key to a firm’s prosperity. The study aims to understand the social and organizational factors that influence knowledge sharing. A model of knowledge management and knowledge sharing was developed inspired by the work of Nahapiet and Ghoshal(1998). This paper explores the role of social capital in the knowledge-based economy with a focus on the creation and diffusion of knowledge in companies. Social capital consists of norms and networks that support cooperation. Bridging social capital, aimed at exchanging and learning skills instead of facts,may increase knowledge flows between various communities of practice in companies. The paper suggests that employees’ ability,motivation, and opportunity to share their human capital can be viewed as both the cause and the outcome of the cognitive, relational,and structural dimensions of social capital embedded in an organization ’s – formal as well as informal – social architecture respectively.