Social Capital, knowledge acquisitioin and knowledge exploitation in young technology-based firms
Strategic Management Journal, (2001)Abstract
Employing a sample of 180 entrepreneurial high-technology ventures based in the United Kingdom we wxamine the effects of social capital in key customer relationships on knowledge acquisition and knwoledge exploitation. Building in the relational view and on social capital and knowledge-based theories, we propose that social capital facilitates external knowledge acquisition in key customer relatioinships and that knwoledge mediates the relationiship between social capital and knowledge exploitation for competitive advantage. Our results indicate that the social interaction and network ties dimensions of social capital are indeed associated with greater knowledge acquisition.