Think Social Capital Before You Think Knowledge Transfer

Knowledge transfer has been promoted as a critical and necessary condition in order for organizations to sustain competitive advantage. In this article, we argue that successful transfer of knowledge within organizations will depend on the accumulated social capital embedded within organizational social networks. We pose social capital as a critical factor for knowledge transfer and hypothesize that the structural, relational, and cognitive dimensions of social capital must be developed within an organization in order for knowledge transfer to impact organizational performance. The study uses data collected from Egypt to test the model. Hofstede's Cultural Dimensions Model is used to explain how cultural attributes limit the accumulation of social capital and the effectiveness of knowledge transfer in developing countries.