Does Culture Really Matter? Cultural Influences on the Knowledge Transfer Process within Multinational Corporations

Transfer and imitation of the organizational capabilities are the twin elements of competition in innovative and growing markets. Knowledge therefore becomes an important strategic asset within organizations. Consequently the management of knowledge is considered with special attention. This paper focuses on the transfer of knowledge between to units of a multinational corporation. The premise of this paper is that successful transfer of knowledge is dependent on the dimensions of the context the transfer process faces. It first gives an overview on main influence factors during the knowledge transfer process between two company units, and then investigates the question whether cultural differences in the sender units influence the knowledge transfer process. The paper finally presents a model of culture related factors influencing the knowledge transfer process between two company units located in geographically different places

Multinationals are Multicultural Units: Some Indications from a Cross-Cultural Study

This paper makes a case for the value of looking at culture and multinationals from a management and organizational perspective because it is one which could direct greater attention towards culture as a significant factor in future investigation on multinational corporations. We attempt to illustrate that multinationals are fundamentally multicultural units in more ways than one. This paper is based on selected materials from a qualitative study of culture and learning in organizations and management. The study investigated four selected Dutch firms in Thailand using evidences collected through observations and open-ended interviews. All evidences were analysed under grounded theory procedure. Parts of the evidences and theorization from the study are presented in this paper, which begins with two cultural riddles from one of the cases as a backdrop for subsequent discussions. Following the riddles is an abridge version of the key finding of the study-a grounded theory of cross-cultural intelligence. Then the two riddles are revisited, this time to illustrate how the proposed theory could illuminate an understanding of their covert meanings vis-à-vis culture and learning in multinationals. Last, we reinstate how our study and its theoretical and empirical findings can elucidate the central thesis that multinationals are essentially multicultural units.case study, culture, corporate culture, cultural intelligence, multinationals, Netherlands, Thailand

Ethics and taxation : a cross-national comparison of UK and Turkish firms

This paper investigates responses to tax related ethical issues facing busines

Impact of Offshore Outsourcing on Competitive Advantage of U.S. Multinational Corporations

Offshore outsourcing became a common business practice by most U.S. and Western businesses after the Internet became viable. It is expected that by 2015 the U.S. market will outsource 3.3 million employment opportunities and will pay an estimated $136 billion in salaries to Asian countries (Hemphill, 2004). Outsourcing became a necessity for corporations to reduce cost and maintain competitiveness in the marketplace, but its effectiveness in achieving superior performance and competitive advantage needs to be explored. The relationship among offshore outsourcing, market freedom, and competitive advantage is an important issue for multinational corporations to conduct business and gain competitive advantage. National culture is also a component of the analysis based upon the role that cultural perceptions play in the cultivation of relationships with foreign nationals and representative companies. The critical analysis of theoretical and empirical literature explored the factors influencing competitive advantage, investigated the impact of offshore outsourcing on competitive advantage, and identified future areas of scholarly inquiry. This literature indicated that U.S. multinational corporations use offshore outsourcing as part of their strategy to establish competitive advantages and better performance. Sources used in this paper focus predominantly on the theoretical, empirical, and historical literature relating to offshoring and outsourcing. This dissertation focuses on U.S. multinational corporations, and discusses the relationship among offshore outsourcing, national culture, market freedom and competitive advantage. The review of the literature suggests a strong level of ambiguity within the initial data. The ambiguity is the result of themes within the literature that contain contradictory subject matter, as well as conflict over how and why specific information is relevant to competitive advantage within the offshore outsourcing process. Problems of ambiguity are further exacerbated in respect to the research methodology used to approach these areas of research. Conflicting results are suggestive of flawed decision-making strategies (such as confusion of terms and limitations on the criteria concerning offshoring and outsourcing) used within the research methodology. It is also indicative of problems in isolating themes that are best applicable to these processes. Of note are problems in the empirical literature in which researchers presented conflicting opinions regarding successful application of offshore outsourcing. This indicates that increased inquiry is required into the study of offshore outsourcing to identify the themes within the literature, and to assess the overall impact of these processes on competitive advantage. The analysis of variance and simple regression results used in this dissertation indicated that offshore outsourcing has no significant impact on competitive advantage. However, a positive relationship does exist. Market freedom factors and multinational corporations\u27 offshore outsourcing are significant variables of the competitive advantage of multinational corporations. The study indicated that an increase of one unit in market freedom in China will result in an increase of competitive advantage by .37 units. Similarly, a one unit increase in market freedom in India will result in an increase of competitive advantage by .45 units

Toward A Model of International Compensation and Rewards: Learning From how Managers Respond to Variations in Local Host Contexts

Managers and researchers recognize that the tensions created by the interplay of globalization and national environments influence the behaviors of multinational enterprises (MNEs). In order to develop a model that is useful for understanding the effects of the global and local host environments on managerial compensation, we undertook a grounded theory building study of managers in several multinationals. We use the information gained to extend two contemporary perspectives of IHRM: national culture, and strategic alignment. We develop the idea that it is the relative degree of variation (flexibility) within the local host context that is critical to understanding managers\u27 ICRS decisions. We present a different, pragmatic experimentation view of managers\u27 ICRS decision making, which we believe offers insights into the effects of the interplay of the MNE pressures to create integrated global systems and the pressures generated within the local host environments

The role of strategic groups in understanding strategic human resource management

Purpose – This article explores how understanding the challenges faced by companies’ attempts to create competitive advantage through their human resources and HRM practices can be enhanced by insights into the concept of strategic groups within industries. Based within the international hotel industry this study identifies how strategic groups emerge in the analysis of HRM practices and approaches. It sheds light on the value of strategic groups as a way of readdressing the focus on firm and industry level analyses. Design Methodology/Approach – Senior human resource executives and their teams across eight international hotel companies (IHCs) were interviewed in corporate and regional headquarters, with observations and the collection of company documentation complementing the interviews. Findings – The findings demonstrate that strategic groups emerge from analysis of the HRM practices and strategies used to develop hotel general managers (HGMs) as strategic human resources in the international hotel industry. The value of understanding industry structures, dynamics and intermediary levels of analysis are apparent where specific industries place occupational constraints on their managerial resources and limit the range of strategies and expansion modes companies can adopt. Research limitations/implications - This study indicates that further research on strategic groups will enhance the theoretical understanding of strategic human resource management (SHRM) and specifically the forces that act to constrain the achievement of competitive advantage through human resources. A limitation of this study is the dependence on the human resource divisions’ perspectives of realising international expansion ambitions in the hotel industry. Practical implications - This study has implications for companies’ engagement with their executives’ perceptions of opportunities and threats, and suggests companies will struggle to achieve competitive advantage where such perceptions are consistent with their competitors. Originality/value - Developments in strategic human resource management have relied upon the conceptual and theoretical developments in strategic management, however, an understanding of the impact of strategic groups and their shaping of SHRM has not been previously explored

New frontiers in international strategy

This paper is based on a panel we organized at the "First Annual Conference on Emerging Research Frontiers in International Business Studies", organized by the Journal of International Business Studies (JIBS), to discuss several new lines of research in international strategy. Four lines of research are developed: The strategic implications of semiglobalization, the impact of institutional voids in international strategy, primitives and levels of analysis in international business, and strategies for the base of the pyramid. Taken together, these studies aim to open a new frontier in our understanding of International Strategy, based on the co-location of firms as places and a key element in international business.international business; semiglobalization; internal strategy; base pyramid; institutions; competitiveness;