Antecedents of Knowledge Sharing with Peer Subsidiaries in Other Countries: A Perspective From Subsidiary Managers in a Foreign Emerging Market

Zusammenfassung

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This study examines antecedent factors that influence organizational knowledge sharing between emerging market subsidiaries and their peer subsidiaries in other countries. Itdemonstrates that knowledge sharing itself is also an organizational variable, which requires proper configuration with both strategic properties (strategic interdependence, technological linkage, and entry mode) and infrastructural conditions (knowledge encapsulation, incentive system, and intranet system). The analysis validates that inter-subsidiary sharing hinges on a subsidiary's strategic interdependence and technological linkage with peer subsidiaries as well as its intranet infrastructure, incentive system, and knowledge encapsulation.

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Antecedents of Knowledge Sharing with Peer Subsidiaries in Other Countries: A Perspective From Subsidiary Managers in a Foreign Emerging Market

A critical challenge for multiunit organizations is to leverage resources and knowledge developed by their diverse units that are dispersed in various locations (Nonaka 1994). In search of synergy and efficiency, organizations engage in cross-unit transfer and sharing of knowledge that reflects their distinctive competencies bolstering and sustaining a competitive advantage (Bartlett/ Ghoshal 1989, Buckley/Carter 1999, Kogut/Zander 1992, Tsai/Ghoshal 1998). In a context of multinational enterprises (MNEs), intraorganizational sharing of distinctive knowledge is filled with more opportunities as well as more challenges in creating synergetic payoff, in contrast to domestic enterprises (Zander/Kogut 1995, Kostova 1999), necessitating a careful diagnosis of factors affecting the success of knowledge sharing (Gupta/Govindarajan 2000).

Accordingly, research on knowledge sharing within MNEs has been surging recently. Knowledge sharing in technology or product innovation aspects has been studied from the viewpoints of global value chain (Hedlund 1994, Hitt/Hoskisson/Ireland 1994), resource exploitation and exploration (Kogut/Zander 1992, Zander/Kogut 1995), and global integration (Ghoshal/Bartlett 1988, Gupta/Govindarajan 1991). According to this line of research, technological knowledge sharing within an MNE network enhances corporate-level value creation, addition, and revitalization. Meanwhile, several other studies addressed how intracorporate knowledge sharing is shaped by external environment conditions such as institutional deterrence, regulatory hindrance, environmental hostility, liability of foreignness, consumption behavior, and intellectual property rights protection (Eisenhardt/Behnam 1995, Glazer 1991, Granstrand/Håkanson/Sjolander 1993, Kostova 1999, Roth/Morrison 1990, Ruggles 1998). These endeavors mostly emphasize parent or corporate-level knowledge and articulate how knowledge sharing nourishes corporate success and network gains.

To further our understanding of intra-MNE knowledge sharing, this study seeks to address inter-unit sharing of organizational knowledge; examine what /«side-organization factors account for this sharing; at foreign subsidiary level. Intra-MNE knowledge sharing can occur at three levels: (1) sharing between parents and subsidiaries; (2) sharing among subsidiaries (i.e., inter-unit sharing); (3) sharing among employees at a local subsidiary, and (4) sharing among the establishments of a same subsidiary in a given market. This study delimits its focus on sharing a...

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