Exploring how social capital facilitates innovation: A theoretical study through the role of personal network dynamics and organizational culture

Résumé

In a competitive and constantly changing context, this article proposes a critical analysis of the role of social capital as a determinant of innovation. While this relationship has been widely studied, the way in which individual social capital affects both types of innovations, exploratory and exploitative, has not yet been sufficiently taken into account. This paper contributes to the theory of exploratory and exploitative innovations by redefining how individual social capital can affect it. We discuss the factors that can accelerate or hinder any innovation initiative in firms.

Our first contribution shows that each dimension of social capital (relational, structural, cognitive) is likely to have a different effect on the innovation process. Our second contribution studies the dynamics of ego networks as important mediators of the social capital-innovation process. We show how the stability and expansion of the partner network influence the relationship between social capital and two types of innovation. Our third contribution sheds light on the contextual variables to be taken into account in the implementation of an innovation process. We analyze the constraints specific to the organizational culture.