ARE YOU GETTING FULL BENEFITS FROM THE USE OF SOCIAL MEDIA? A REVIEW COMBINING THE CONCEPTS OF SOCIAL MEDIA, SOCIAL CAPITAL AND KNOWLEDGE SHARING.

Purpose - The social media have become powerful tools that can be used to do much more than connecting relatives and friends, helping find a job or providing advertising space. This study aims to present the benefits of combining the subjects related to Knowledge Sharing, Social Media and Social Capital theory. Design/methodology/approach - Literature review of 22 papers identified as relevant when combining the subjects Social Media, Social Capital and Knowledge Sharing. The 22 documents were subjected of content analysis. Findings - The analysis of the literature revealed two fundamental roles for social media within organizations - an operational role - working as a channel or tool; a transformative role - used to support organizational strategy. Research limitations/implications - The limitation of this study is related to the limited number of papers that resulted from the search. Practical implications - The benefits of combining the three subjects include improvements on informal communication, better collaboration and cooperation, and a positive influence on job performance and innovation. Originality/value - The proposed research agenda highlights the importance of future investigations into the sharing of tacit knowledge through Social Media; focusing on how to generate trust via Social Media and suggests research attention related to knowledge protection. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]