Investigating the role of social capital in innovation: sparse versus dense network

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to analyze the literature on social capital and its contribution to innovation performance.Design/methodology/approach – Through an intensive review of the literature, the paper first analyzes the origin of the concept of social capital. It then explains the contribution of social capital within the organization and management studies. Further, social capital is considered the facilitator of knowledge search and knowledge sharing activities, which are considered of capital importance to innovation outcomes. Further, the paper clarifies the implications of social capital to two types of innovation: radical vs incremental innovation. Finally, the paper analyzes the structural dimension of social capital by focusing on the contribution of two different configurations and their effect on innovation: sparse vs cohesive networks.Findings – The paper contributes to the literature by uncovering the positive, but also the negative, drawbacks of social capital. Moreover, the p...

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