Social capital and creativity in R&D project teams

Abstract

The existing research contributes to our understanding about the value of social capital in a wide range of social science disciplines; however, it does not well address the role of social capital in creativity for research and development (R&D) project teams in a given context. Using a sample of 54 R&D project teams in high‐technology firms of Taiwan, we examined the impacts of social capital on creativity of R&D project teams from an intra‐team perspective. Results of factor analysis revealed four factors extracted from the concept of social capital, namely social interaction, network ties, mutual trust, and shared goals. Findings suggested that social interaction and network ties had significant and positive impacts on creativity of R&D project teams, but mutual trust and shared goals did not. Managerial implications for managing social capital in R&D project teams are discussed.