Social capital, human capital, tacit knowledge, and innovations, A Polish-US cross-country study

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This study measures the relationship between human and social capital (internal and external) and tacit knowledge sharing's influence on innovativeness among knowledge workers employed in Polish (n=1050) and US (n=1118) organizations. The structural equation modeling method revealed that internal social capital matters more for organizational innovativeness in the US. In Poland, both external and internal were important. Specifically, in the US, external social capital supports internal innovativeness directly and external - indirectly. On the contrary, in Poland, social capital directly influences internal and external innovativeness. These differences are partially due to country differences regarding public and private financing. Also apparent is the need for strong social bonds between employees in innovative companies. Furthermore, this study confirms that internal innovativeness is vital for external innovativeness and reveals that social capital is a structural enabler for innovativeness, given its critical role in the distribution of tacit knowledge.