The effectiveness of relationship quality on knowledge transfer in project teams: the roles of project organizational structure

Purpose This paper aims to investigate the impact of relationship quality among team members in the project team on knowledge transfer effectiveness and analyze the role of organizational structure in the influencing process. Design/methodology/approach The hypotheses are verified by the Structural Equation Modeling (SEM) analysis using Smart PLS 3 software with the data collected from 236 questionnaire samples in Chinese construction industry. Findings The results indicate that relationship quality has a direct impact on knowledge transfer in project teams and centralization has a negative impact on relationship quality. Moreover, relationship quality plays a mediating role between centralization and knowledge transfer effectiveness and formalization plays a negative moderating role in the effect of relationship quality on knowledge transfer effectiveness. Originality/value This paper studies intra-project knowledge transfer from the perspective of relationship quality of project teams and explores the antecedent and moderating role of organizational structure in the influence of relationship quality on knowledge transfer.