How knowledge sharing connects interpersonal trust and innovation capability The moderating effect of leadership support

Purpose Knowledge sharing (KS) and innovation are generally believed as the antecedents of key outcomes that help firms to attain and sustain competitive advantage in long term. The purpose of this paper is to analyze the mechanism of how interpersonal trust and leader support affect KS and improve firm's innovation capabilities. Design/methodology/approach This is a research paper which is built using empirical data collected from 68 manufacturing and service firms in China. Findings First, the findings show that leader supports moderate the correlation between interpersonal trust and KS. Second, KS serves as mediator in the relationship between interpersonal trust and firm's innovation capabilities. Originality/value This study puts the theory of innovation forward based on exploring the key factors that have potential and positive impacts on two specific types of innovation capability, namely, product innovation and process innovation, for both manufacturing and service firms.