Explain the role of social capital on the performance of innovation in knowledge-based companies

Nowadays, a lot of discussions about innovation topic are seen because of the emergence of three major trends in strong international competition, discrete markets and changing technology. These trends have attracted an interest of business experts toward a wonderful attention and research in the concept of social capital as a critical factor that makes a promotion of organizational performance and creating competitive advantage is based on innovation. Therefore, goal of this study is to investigate how to explain the role of social capital on the performance of technological innovation. The research method was descriptive-survey and sample of the study was knowledge based companies in Science and Technology Park of Tehran University. With regard to access to all the companies studied, the questionnaire was sent to all firms. 96 questionnaires were received, which covered the minimum required sample (85 units of analysis) according to Morgan table.The study's test results indicate that among dimensions of social capital, both social interaction and trust have a positive impact on commitment to innovation and customer knowledge development, but shared norms didn’t have the positive impact on these variabels. The effect of Commitment to innovation on the development of customer was confirmed, Also, both commitment to innovation and customer knowledge development are positively influenced on innovation performance. Lastly, management suggestions from research findings are provided.