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The research area of knowledge transfer is a critical one in the current era of the knowledge economy. Previous studies have channelled much effort into understanding how knowledge transfer could be facilitated efficiently. Yet most of these studies conducted research only at the individual level, ignoring the fact that, in many organizations, the team now serves as the basic unit for transferring and preserving knowledge. In addition, these studies have not put much emphasis on the learning side of knowledge transfer. This study attempts to fill the gaps left by previous studies. First, we identify two determinants of knowledge transfer, namely, knowledge sharing and learning intensity. Furthermore, we discuss how to efficiently foster knowledge sharing and learning intensity at the team level from the perspective of social capital. Finally, we conduct an empirical survey to examine relationships among the components of social capital (i.e. trust and social interaction), and knowledge sharing and learning intensity.

The relationship between interpersonal trust and knowledge sharing was explored, along with the impact of individual altruism and a social interaction environment. Participants were employees in Taiwanese high-tech industries. Employees' perceived interpersonal trust, of either their colleagues or supervisor, was found to be positively correlated with their knowledge-sharing behaviors in the workplace. Employees' altruism traits were found to be a factor for them to share knowledge in the workplace and the trait of altruism was also found to reduce the positive association between trust of colleagues and knowledge sharing. An organizational social interaction environment intensifies the positive association between trust of colleagues and knowledge sharing. Theoretical and managerial implications of the study are discussed.

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Foreign direct investment (FDI) and research & development (R&D) are mutually dependent and should be treated as endogenous variables in empirical studies. An endogenous switching regression model is used to examine the mutual effect of FDI and R&D in Taiwan's electronics industry. The empirical results show that FDI and R&D are positively related and do reinforce each other. Unbiased coefficients are obtained as they are compared to those estimates if FDI and R&D are treated as exogenous variables. The results have a strong public policy implication for Taiwan's foreign direct investment and can be further used to estimate the difference in R&D expenditures between FDI and non-FDI firms.