Social Integration Mechanisms to Transfer Knowledge Between People Involved in Projects: A Systematic Literature Review

ABSTRACT This paper aims to identify how mechanisms of social integration influence knowledge transfer in project environments. A systematic literature review was conducted using the Web of Science and Scopus databases. From an initial set of 6827 articles, a final corpus of 324 relevant publications was selected with the support of the Rayyan platform. The analysis identified 2627 records related to social integration mechanisms for knowledge transfer in projects, which were classified into 247 distinct types grouped into four main categories: behavioral, social, governance, and technological mechanisms. The results indicate that behavioral mechanisms (e.g., leadership, organizational culture, and trust) and social mechanisms (e.g., events, face‐to‐face interactions, shared language, and knowledge brokers) are more frequently emphasized in the literature and tend to play a central role in enabling knowledge transfer among project participants. This does not imply that governance and technological mechanisms are less relevant, because their roles remain comparatively underexplored in current research. By integrating these mechanisms into a structured framework, the study advances the understanding of how knowledge transfer is supported in project environments and identifies opportunities for future research. The findings also provide practical insights for project managers and decision‐makers by clarifying mechanisms that can support knowledge transfer, problem‐solving, and innovation in projects.