The existing research contributes to our understanding about the value of social capital in a wide range of social science disciplines; however, it does not well address the role of social capital in creativity for research and development (R&D) project teams in a given context. Using a sample of 54 R&D project teams in high‐technology firms of Taiwan, we examined the impacts of social capital on creativity of R&D project teams from an intra‐team perspective. Results of factor analysis revealed four factors extracted from the concept of social capital, namely social interaction, network ties, mutual trust, and shared goals. Findings suggested that social interaction and network ties had significant and positive impacts on creativity of R&D project teams, but mutual trust and shared goals did not. Managerial implications for managing social capital in R&D project teams are discussed.

The increase of strategic alliance and national or pan-national government collaborative programmes has highlighted the shifting management and policy focus from inducing in-house R&D to promoting a joint partnership between firms and knowledge-generating organisations in the increasingly complex and costly innovation process. Both the 'dynamic capability' school and the 'innovation network' theorists demonstrate that inter-organisational cooperation has become a crucial mechanism for 'collective innovation'. However, little attempt has been undertaken to examine the relationship between inter-organisational co-operation and innovative performance at the firm level. The innovative activities and inter-organisational co-operation of integrated circuits and biotechnology sectors across Taiwan and the UK are investigated via a postal questionnaire survey. Multiple logistic regression models are deployed. The result reveals that the types of inter-organisational co-operation enhancing a firm's innovative performance vary across sectors and countries. Despite the variation, this paper argues that a firm's networking ability to co-operate with buyer firms, supplier firms and external organisations is becoming imperative for enhancing innovation in the increasingly distributed innovation process.

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