What Makes Firms Innovative? The Role of Social Capital in Corporate Innovation

Se-Yeon Ahn and So-Hyung Kim
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Se-Yeon Ahn: Management Research Center, Seoul National University, 1 Kwanak-ro, Kwanak-gu, Seoul 08826, Korea
So-Hyung Kim: Department of Business, Baekseok University, 76, Munam-ro, Dongam-gu, Chenan-si 31965, Korea

Sustainability, 2017, vol. 9, issue 9, 1-13

Abstract: This paper offers a social capital explanation for the purported relationship between human capital investment and an organization’s innovation capability. We argue that social capital plays a mediating role in the relationship between the level of individual knowledge of employees and organizations’ innovation capabilities. The mediating mechanism is attributed to the role of social capital in knowledge exchange and combination that help enhance knowledge creation. Using survey data of 319 manufacturing firms in Korea, we conducted structural equation modeling (SEM) analysis to verify the mediating role of social capital in firms’ innovation performance. The results demonstrated that relational and cognitive dimensions of social capital are important mediators in realizing organizational innovation performance.

Keywords: innovation capability; social capital; knowledge creation; human capital investment (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O13 Q Q0 Q2 Q3 Q5 Q56 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2017
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (10)

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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:9:y:2017:i:9:p:1564-:d:110726

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