Purpose The paper aims to investigate the emerging issue of knowledge transfer and organisational performance. The purpose of this paper is to investigate the importance of knowledge transfer in obtaining high and positive results in organisations, in particular, studying the role of managers' skills transfer and which conditions help to achieve positive performance. Design/methodology/approach The research analyses 41 cases of coaches that managed clubs competing in the major international leagues in the 2014-2015 season and that moved to a new club over the past five seasons. The authors employ a qualitative comparative analysis (QCA) methodology. According to the research question, the outcome variable used is the team sport performance improvement. As explanatory variables, the authors focus on five main variables: the history of coach transfers; the staff transferred; the players transferred; investments in new players and the competitiveness. Findings The overall results show that when specific conditions are realised simultaneously, they allow team performance improvement, even if the literature states that the coach transfers show a negative impact on outcomes. Interestingly, this work reaches contrasting results because it shows the need for the coexistence of combinations of variables to achieve the transferability of managers' capabilities and performance. Originality/value The paper is novel because it presents a QCA that tries to understand which conditions, factors and contexts help knowledge to be transferred and to contribute to the successful run of organisations.
