What a social capital perspective can bring to the understanding of information sharing in a university context

Introduction. This paper focuses on information sharing in a university context within the social capital framework. This embraces a new way of looking at the collaborative information behaviour in the university context and the purpose is to discover whether the theory of social capital is useful for exploring mechanisms behind knowledge sharing. Method. The empirical material consists of thirteen semi-structured interviews with professors and heads of departments in a university faculty. Analysis. Social capital and information sharing were measured and analysed by following three main parts in the interviews; social identification, affective trust, and personal communication and cooperation. Qualitative methods were used. Results. The study reveals a fragmented faculty with different cultures and prerequisites for fruitful social capital. Conclusions. The findings support the hypothesis that social capital is a useful framework in examining information sharing mechanisms.