Knowledge transfer in the Human and Social Sciences: the importance of informal relationships and its organizational consequences

This study analyzes the characteristics of knowledge transfer in the social and human sciences within a large government research establishment. We deploy an innovative analytical framework and make an explicit link between the range of transfer processes it
identifies and the organizational and analytical challenges that such variety poses. The results show that the characteristics of the transfer process (in terms of the type of agents involved, the content of the transfer, transfer mechanisms, receivers and the contextual factors, and barriers to transfer) are very different in the social sciences and humanities from those prevalent in the experimental sciences and engineering. Consequently the policies to support efficient knowledge transfer must also be different and tailored to the specific characteristics of knowledge production and use in the social sciences and humanities.