Knowledge sharing and innovation performance: a case study on the impact of organizational culture, structural capital, human resource management practices, and relational capital of real estate agents

Abstract This study focused on the factors that influence innovation performance in housing agents. Based on a worldwide literature review on the topic of innovation performance, we defined relational capital, knowledge sharing at the individual level, and organizational culture, structural capital, and human resource management practices at the organizational level to carry out the analysis using hierarchical linear modeling. The survey subjects were housing agents in Kaohsiung City, Taiwan. A total of 1130 questionnaires were distributed to 113 agencies. Of a total of 444 collected surveys, 40 unanswered questionnaires were invalid and three with fewer than three answers were eliminated. The final number of valid questionnaires was 401. The response rate of effective questionnaires was 35.49%. The results show that organizational culture can indirectly affect innovation performance through knowledge sharing, indicating that there is a partial mediating effect. Structural capital can indirectly affect innovation performance through knowledge sharing, demonstrating a complete mediating effect. Relational capital can indirectly affect innovation performance through knowledge sharing, having a partial mediating effect. Human resource management practices did not have a confounding effect on innovation performance.