Importance of social capital to student creativity within higher education in China

• This paper investigates the effects of different sources of social capital on student creativity.
• We applied the socio-cultural perspective in general and the social capital in particular as the theoretical context.
• We found that the peer, advisor, and expert social capital of graduate students can independently and interactively influence their creativity.

Drawing on socio-cultural theory, this paper investigates the effects of different sources of social capital on student creativity. A sample of 216 graduate students from a leading Chinese research university were surveyed regarding their social capital and creativity. Our results indicated that the peer, advisor, and expert social capital of graduate students can independently and interactively influence their creativity. Specifically, the three sources of social capital can positively affect creativity. In addition, peer and advisor social capital had a significant joint effect on creativity. However, peer and expert social capital had a negative interactive effect on creativity. The theoretical and practical implications of these findings are discussed in this paper.