Fostering the determinants of knowledge transfer: a team-level analysis

The research area of knowledge transfer is a critical one in the current era of the knowledge economy. Previous studies have channelled much effort into understanding how knowledge transfer could be facilitated efficiently. Yet most of these studies conducted research only at the individual level, ignoring the fact that, in many organizations, the team now serves as the basic unit for transferring and preserving knowledge. In addition, these studies have not put much emphasis on the learning side of knowledge transfer. This study attempts to fill the gaps left by previous studies. First, we identify two determinants of knowledge transfer, namely, knowledge sharing and learning intensity. Furthermore, we discuss how to efficiently foster knowledge sharing and learning intensity at the team level from the perspective of social capital. Finally, we conduct an empirical survey to examine relationships among the components of social capital (i.e. trust and social interaction), and knowledge sharing and learning intensity.