Effects of Social Capital and Knowledge Integration on Innovation Performance: An Example of Virtual Teams

With the rapid development of economic globalization and information technology, virtual teams has become widely accepted. Aiming at virtual teams in the Yangtze River Delta, total 429 copies of questionnaire are distributed for this study and total 367 valid copies are retrieved, with the retrieval rate 85.5%. The relationships among social capital (structural dimension, relational dimension and cognitive dimension), integration of knowledge, information technology and innovation performance are verified with the data collected. The results reveal significant positive effects of social capital on knowledge integration of virtual team and social capital on innovation performance of virtual team, and knowledge integration partially mediates the effects of social capital on innovation performance of virtual team. The application of information technology weakens the effcets of social capital on innovation performance and knowledge integration. Therefore, in face of a variety of information technologies, managers should select the suitable one for the team, and pay attention to establish a harmonious social relations network as well as coordinate the conflict and cooperation behavior among virtual team members, for promotion of the knowledge integration and innovation performance.