The aim of the paper is to investigate the relationships existing between cognitive resources and the existence of diverse social connections among individuals in territorial contexts, by adopting a theoretical framework and model based on a complex conception of shareable knowledge and a quantitative approach to empirical analysis. The adopted framework draws on different literature threads such as knowledge management, regional economics, planning strategy and organizational science, and is based on the conception of knowledge as a 'club good' of a complex nature, and on a cognitive-oriented definition and classification of social capital, partly based on Nahapiet and Ghoshal's work (1998). Social capital - in its various forms - is seen as an (individual, organizational or institutional) asset which can allow the access to different forms of useful knowledge, bypassing the barriers (secrecy, tacitness, codification) which constitute obstacles to knowledge exchange and absorption. Four main dimensions of social capital (structural-proactive, attitudinal identity, attitudinal openness, and cognitive tools) and three main dimensions of knowledge (declarative, procedural, and conceptual) are defined, and relationships (causal effects and correlations) among them are hypothesized. In order to test the model, an evolved approach for empirical analysis has been chosen, consisting of a structural analysis for observed variables, applied to psychometric data collected among over 800 individuals in the Republic of Latvia. The results allow to accept most hypotheses but point out some unexpected results as well. Whereas structural, attitudinal identity and cognitive social capital are found to have an impact on declarative knowledge, and cognitive social capital is found to influence procedural knowledge, no significant effect of attitudinal identity social capital on procedural knowledge, and cognitive social capital on conceptual knowledge, is found. The results are meant to be further investigated in detail against spatial, socio-economic and demographic control variables.
