The Relationship between Social Capital, Knowledge Sharing and Enterprise Performance: Evidence from Vietnam

This study investigates the relationship between social capital and enterprise performance with knowledge sharing as the mediator. By employing the data of 677 respondents collected from delivering questionnaires to small and medium-size firms in Vietnam in 2020, this study suggests a two-step approach that combines exploration factor analysis (EFA), confirmatory factor analysis (CFA), and path analysis (SEM). The empirical findings significantly support our proposed model by demonstrating that knowledge sharing mediates the connection between all three elements of social capital and enterprise performance. At the same time, the results emphasize the importance of knowledge sharing as a major benefit of social capital and a substantial driving element of both operational and financial performance. The results show that all three social capital qualities (structural, relational, and cognitive) significantly impact both tacit and explicit knowledge sharing, while knowledge is one of the main routes connecting social capital to enterprise performance. Hence, our research model may be used in future studies to evaluate social capital, knowledge sharing, and firm performance as a new theoretical model. Our results offer a plausible explanation for how social capital improves knowledge sharing and enterprise performance.