Knowledge Mobilization through Social tieS: The Cost-Benefit Analysis

Alexander Fliaster and Josef Spiess

Schmalenbach Business Review (sbr), 2008, vol. 60, issue 1, 99-117

Abstract: Social network ties enable collaborative creation and sharing of ideas between knowledge workers. Thus, these ties play an important role in organizational innovation as well as for the personal success of the innovators. However, scholars tend to focus only on the information benefits, underestimating the costs of interpersonal relationships. Going beyond this onedimensional perspective, we first suggest a theoretical model that takes into account both, benefits and transaction costs of social ties. Second, based on this model, we examine the advantages and disadvantages of strong and weak ties in the process of knowledge mobilization, the quality of knowledge, and the transaction costs of maintaining and using the ties. Finally, we shift the focus from the dyadic perspective to an integrative view and discuss the implications that our analysis has for a knowledge worker’s portfolio of ties.

Keywords: Innovation; Knowledge Sharing; Strong Ties; Transaction Costs; Weak Ties (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: M12 O31 O32 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2008
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (5)

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