Knowledge Transfer Within the Multinational Firm: What Drives the Speed of Transfer?

Zusammenfassung

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This paper examines the process of knowledge transfer in an intra organizational context. We first hypothesize that internal transfers will occur faster than external imitation due to the conceptual view of the multinational corporation as a social community that specializes in the creation and transfer of knowledge. We then present an analysis of the determinants of the speed of intra firm knowledge transfer by using a dyadic level of analysis, involving sender and recipient subsidiaries, examining the effects of subsidiary technology specialization and dyad interaction and technological distance. We test our hypotheses using patent citation data in the semiconductor industry.

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Auszug

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Knowledge Transfer Within the Multinational Firm: What Drives the Speed of Transfer?

Introduction

Firm abilities in creating and managing knowledge have been the focus of much recent research interest. This reflects the increasing recognition of knowledge as a particularly pivotal asset of firms in securing and sustaining competitive advantage (Bresman/Birkinshaw/Nobel 1999, Nonaka/Takeuchi 1995). Organizational studies are increasingly concerned with determining the factors that shape the ability of organizations to produce new knowledge (Sorensen/Stuart 2000). The notion that the creation of new ideas is a result of the transfer and recombination of existing knowledge resources, is a dominant one in the strategic management field (Schumpeter 1934, Galunic/Rodan 1999, Henderson/Cockburn 1994). Therefore a key concern for creating competitive advantage in a knowledge based economy should be an understanding of the factors that drive knowledge transfer.

Research in the strategic management literature has attempted on the most part to investigate the process of knowledge transfer across firm boundaries. These studies have primarily examined the role of hybrid forms of organization such as alliances in facilitating knowledge transfers (Mowery/Oxley/Silverman 1996, Borys/Jemison 1989) and the obstacles to such knowledge transfer due to geographic and cultural distance and characteristics of knowledge (Simonin 1999, Garud/Nayyar 1994, Teece 1977). In more recent years however, research on knowledge transfer within the firm, including within the multinational context, has picked up significant momentum (Hansen 1999, Cool/Dierickx/Szulanski 1997). Although theoretical conceptualizations of the multinational corporation have emphasized its ability to integrate and transfer knowledge within its boundaries (Kogut/Zander 1992, Ghoshal/Bartlett 1995), empirical investigations of knowledge transfers within the multinational corporation and the factors that drive such transfers have been few (Szulanski 1996, Ghoshal/Bartlett 1988, Zander/Kogut 1995, Gupta/Govindrajan 2000). Yet the growing dispersion of innovatory activity to overseas locations is a clear indicator that knowledge is increasingly being created by different subsidiaries of the firm and there is a need to leverage and transfer this knowledge so that it is fully exploited within the firm. Gupta and Govindrajan (200...

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