Social capital, knowledge sharing and organizational performance: What structural relationship do they have in hotels?

Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to investigate an integrative model that explores the influence of knowledge-sharing enablers (social capital (SC), including structural, relational, and cognitive SC) on knowledge-sharing (KS) processes (KS behaviors: knowledge collecting (KC) and knowledge donating (KD)) as well as a further superior KS outcome (organizational performance).

Design/methodology/approach

The survey was administered in 14 top tier five-star hotels in Seoul, Korea. Employees of the hotels participated in the survey; 486 surveys were used to investigate a research model and hypotheses using a path analysis.

Findings

The research confirmed the importance of SC in the context of KS from the resource-based view. The paper provides empirical evidence that structural, relational, and cognitive SC affected KC and KD, which in turn influenced organizational performance. Interestingly, whereas cognitive SC has the strongest effect on employees' KC, relational SC has the strongest effect on employees' KD. The impact of employees' KC on organizational performance appears to be stronger than that of KD.

Practical implications

The relationships among KS enablers, processes, and organizational performance may provide a clue regarding how hotels can promote KS culture, which focuses on the social dynamics derived from interpersonal and group relationships to boost their performance by increasing employees' willingness to collect knowledge from and donate knowledge to colleagues.

Originality/value

This study explores the under-researched subject of SC with regard to KS and their roles in promoting organizational performance within a hospitality industry context. The study is among the first to examine SC as an organizational resource, two distinctive types of KS behaviors as an organizational capability, and organizational performance from both an integrative (KS enablers-processes-outcomes framework) and resource-based view of the firm's perspective simultaneously. Especially, this study identifies the specific mechanism of two distinctive types of employees' KS behaviors, such as KC and KD, between SC factors and organizational performance.

Citation

Terry Kim, T., Lee, G., Paek, S. and Lee, S. (2013), "Social capital, knowledge sharing and organizational performance: What structural relationship do they have in hotels?", International Journal of Contemporary Hospitality Management, Vol. 25 No. 5, pp. 683-704. https://doi.org/10.1108/IJCHM-Jan-2012-0010