A multilevel model for effects of social capital and knowledge sharing in knowledge-intensive work teams

•This study combines a multilevel approach and an optimal network configuration view to examine the impact of social capital.•The multilevel analysis shows the cross-level effect of team social capital on individuals’ knowledge sharing behavior.•Social capitals at different levels have distinct influences on individuals’ sharing of explicit and tacit knowledge.•Individuals’ betweenness centrality and a team's network density have a curvilinear impact on team knowledge sharing. Although it is a widely held belief that social capital facilitates knowledge sharing among individuals, there is little research that has deeply investigated the impacts of social capital at different levels on an individual's knowledge sharing behavior. To address this research gap, this study combines a multilevel approach and an optimal network configuration view to investigate the multilevel effects of social capital on individuals’ knowledge sharing in knowledge intensive work teams. This study makes a distinction between the social capital at the team-level and that of social capital at the individual level to examine their cross-level and direct effects on an individual's sharing of explicit and tacit knowledge. A survey involving 343 participants in 47 knowledge-intensive teams was conducted for testing the multilevel model. The results reveal that social capital at both levels jointly influences an individual's explicit and tacit knowledge sharing. Further, when individuals possess a moderate betweenness centrality and the whole team holds a moderate network density, team members’ knowledge sharing can be maximized. These findings offer a more comprehensive and precise understanding of the multilevel impacts of social capital on team members’ knowledge sharing behavior, thus contributing to the social capital theory, as well as knowledge management research and practices.