Abstract
Frontline service employees (FSEs) are often the first point of contact between the firm and the customer. They are able to understand the customer’s need and provide creative solutions when problems occur. These situations indicate that FSEs’ creativity is an important issue for service firm to focus. There has been importance on research about FSEs’ creativity. While the personal factors and work contextual factors leading to FSEs’ creativity have been extensively investigated, the individual-level social capital is relatively underexplored. Therefore, the aim of this thesis attempts to explore how individual-level social capital and work contextual factors are related to individual FSEs’ creativity. In addition, a cross-country comparison was conducted. This study used the data from the previous research project ‘‘Social Capital: Its Origins and Consequences” conducted in United Stated, China, and Taiwan. Results of this study show authority, autonomy, number of positions known and interpersonal contact frequency of individual social capital have different effects across countries. These findings have implications for researchers and provide some insights for service firms.