Reciprocity and knowledge transfer: The role of social and economic factors

This study examines the transfer of tacit, technological, non-proprietary knowledge. Understanding the factors affecting knowledge transfer is important as extant research identifies it as a predictor of firm performance. This study focuses on the key social and economic factors that influence an R&D scientist's knowledge transfer behavior both within and between firms.; Extant literature suggests that social relationships facilitate knowledge transfer inside the firm—evoking positive expectations of reciprocity. Similarly, competition prevents knowledge transfer across firm boundaries—evoking negative expectations of reciprocity. However, the literature does not examine the relationship between social relationships and competition inside or outside the firm. I call this interaction between the competition and social relationships that surround exchanges, the socio-economic exchange context. I posit that knowledge transfer behavior is affected by the expectations of reciprocity, resulting from the combination of economic and social variables like competition and social relationships that characterize exchange contexts both inside and outside the firm. Examining this combination, I attempted to answer two research questions: (a) Does the socio-economic context1 of the relationship between the source and recipient affect knowledge transfer inside and outside the firm? And (b) Under what conditions does this socio-economic context affect knowledge transfer?; Results from the policy capturing study showed that when social relationships and competition that make up the socio-economic context surrounding an exchange evoked positive expectations of reciprocity, the quality of knowledge transferred between scientists was high. When they evoked negative expectations of reciprocity, the quality of knowledge transferred was low. Finally, when they evoked equivocal expectations of reciprocity, the quality of knowledge transferred was intermediate—between a high and low quality of knowledge, but significantly different from both. These findings held true for knowledge requests originating inside and outside the firm. The findings also suggested how knowledge requests with equivocal expectations of reciprocity are resolved.; These findings (a) extend our understanding of the knowledge transfer phenomenon inside and outside the firm; (b) identify and substantiate knowledge transfers with equivocal expectations of reciprocity, which have gone unrecognized in the past; and (c) provide insight into the role of formal and social controls on knowledge transfer behavior.; 1In this study the socio-economic exchange context refers to the ratio between the strength of the social relationships and the level of competition that surround an exchange.