The role of social capital's academic research groups in their scientific performance: the importance of knowledge sharing
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.51302/rtss.2022.4665Keywords:
social capital, structural capital, relational capital, cognitive capital, knowledge sharing, academic research groups, scientific performanceAbstract
Analysing the performance of academic researchers, as well as the factors that influence it, continues to be relevant, especially in the Spanish context, due to the process of change in which the university system has been immersed. The aim of this paper is to analyse the role of social capital in research groups and its effect on scientific productivity. For this purpose, an empirical study was carried out with the participation of 283 academics belonging to 87 research groups in a Spanish university. The results reveal that the existence of a high level of social capital in research groups directly and negatively influences scientific productivity. However, findings also show that this effect is positively and significantly mediated when knowledge is shared, which highlights the importance of sharing knowledge among team members to ensure social capital results in improved scientific productivity. Thus, this study shows the importance of research groups being configured not only as collaborative networks, but also as knowledge-intensive teams.
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