Does knowledge sharing pay? A multinational subsidiary perspective on knowledge outflows

Empirical studies on the impact of knowledge management on the performance of MNC subsidiaries remain elusive to date. This study examines the effect of knowledge management tools on absorptive capacity and firm performance with unique data from subsidiary units in a large German MNC – HeidelbergCement. The findings suggest that knowledge management tools unfold their performance impact through their significant influence on absorptive capacity and knowledge inflows. The key contributions to the current literature on knowledge flows in the MNC include an empirically corroborated link between deployments of knowledge management tools and their impact on the subsidiary employee’s ability and motivation to learn from internal knowledge flows in the MNC as well as their impact on subsidiary business performance

How Does Knowledge Transfer from Foreign Subsidiaries Affect Parent Companies' Innovative Capacity

The paper addresses reverse knowledge transfer (RKT) from foreign subsidiary to parent company. Specifically, it aims at investigating to what extent the effectiveness of such a transfer is influenced by: (i) the organizational mechanisms employed for transferring knowledge; (ii) the subsidiary’s role, its autonomy, and its relationships with the local context. The empirical analysis considers 162 transfers of best practices possessed by foreign subsidiaries and transferred back to their Italian parent companies. Results confirm that the impact of RKT on the parent company’s innovativeness is greater when: (i) person-based mechanisms are employed for transferring knowledge; (ii) subsidiaries are competence-creating; and (iii) knowledge developed by subsidiaries benefits from local external linkages.External linkages; organizational mechanisms; parent company's innovativeness; reverse knowledge transfer, subsidiary’s characteristics

Knowledge transfer in on-collocated software architecture development: From the perspective of analysts and software architects

Learning within software development involves the transfer of knowledge between different yet interdependent functional teams.In reality however, these teams often create islands of knowledge due mostly to indistinct flow of knowledge transfer (KT), thus fail to take advantage of the opportunity to learn from each other.Taking the non"collocated software architecture development teams as a challenge, the goal of this study is to investigate the nature of KT that occurs between the analyst and software architect teams in non-collocated software architecture development.Data are collected from semi"structured interviews with 30 respondents consisting of industrial experts ranging from analyst, software architects and project managers.We managed to gather sufficient evidence that proves KT occurs, and successfully characterize the areas of knowledge used and exchanged, the interdependency between teams, the utilization of knowledge, the medium used for KT and finally, the external conditions surrounding KT during non" collocated software architecture development.These findings are useful as they rest a good understanding of KT and its vital elements in non-collocated software architecture development for all prospective researchers and practitioners

JAPANESE ENTERPRISES ROLE ON SMES DEVELOPMENT IN INDONESIA: INSIDE TOBIKO EXPORT AND IMPORT

The behavior and the performance of firms, which are highlighted on small and medium-sized enterprise (SME) development, have been extensively discussed since few past decades among the scholars and researchers. Nonetheless, most of those studies only concentrate onto Western firms and less is known in South-East Asia firms, especially the firms located in Indonesia. Consistent with the lack of literature mentioned above, the most significant problem within the body of literature is there are also very little comprehensive findings of empirical research in examining the role of foreign enterprises which specialized in flying fish roe product, known as Tobiko or To Bio No Tamago in Japanese, on the development of Indonesian SMEs in general and the development of natives’ wealth and knowledge in particular. To this knowledge, this study thus aims to expound the role of Kanetoku Corporation and Kanematsu Corporation (formerly known as Kanematsu Gosho Ltd.) – as the representative of the foreign firms – on the development of Indonesian SMEs that are originated from South Sulawesi province, especially from Makassar, Takalar, and Mamuju region. Through the application of resource-based view (RBV) as the grounded theory and the emphasis on the underpinning concept of innovation and knowledge-transfer, this study is strongly expected come up with the result that innovation and knowledge transfer provided by Japanese firms intentionally or unintentionally have become the vital factors on the development of South Sulawesi SMEs that can be seen for example within (1) the successful internationalization of South Sulawesi SMEs and amusingly (2) the remarkable discovery of a new habitat of flying fish outside the South Sulawesi province by the South Sulawesi SMEs during the collaboration between Japanese firms

Expatriates managers' cultural intelligence as promoter of knowledge transfer in multinational companies

This study analyzes the role of the Cultural Intelligence (CQ) of expatriate managers in the processes of Conventional (CKT) and Reverse Knowledge Transfer (RKT) in Multinational Companies (MNCs). The Partial Least Squares-Structural Equation Modeling (PLS-SEM) technique was adopted to analyze the data from a survey of 103 senior expatriate managers working in Croatia. The study reveals how CQ, in all of its four dimensions (metacognitive, cognitive, behavioral, and motivational), acts as a knowledge de-codification and codification filter, assisting managers in the Knowledge Transfer process. The study also reveals how previous international experience does not moderate the positive effect of CQ on both CKT and RKT, offering important theoretical and practical insights to support MNCs in the KT process

A Process-Based Explanation of the Psychic Distance Paradox: Evidence from Global Virtual Teams

Previous research has found evidence of a counter-intuitive positive relationship between psychic distance and performance, which has been labeled the “psychic distance paradox”. However, there is a dearth of literature explaining the causal mechanisms that elucidates such a positive relationship. Studying the effect of team-level psychic distance on the performance of global virtual teams, we build on the input-process-outcome framework of team research, which allows the integration of process variables to provide new insights into the underlying coherences of the psychic distance paradox. These variables include the team members’ expectation of challenges as well as the level of team effort toward the task. The team members’ motivational cultural intelligence is introduced to the model as a moderating factor. The data support the hypothesized causal path. The findings start unveiling the psychic distance paradox through the integration of the literatures on psychic distance and global virtual teams

A Process-Based Explanation of the Psychic Distance Paradox: Evidence from Global Virtual Teams

Previous research has found evidence of a counter-intuitive positive relationship between psychic distance and performance, which has been labeled the “psychic distance paradox”. However, there is a dearth of literature explaining the causal mechanisms that elucidates such a positive relationship. Studying the effect of team-level psychic distance on the performance of global virtual teams, we build on the input-process-outcome framework of team research, which allows the integration of process variables to provide new insights into the underlying coherences of the psychic distance paradox. These variables include the team members’ expectation of challenges as well as the level of team effort toward the task. The team members’ motivational cultural intelligence is introduced to the model as a moderating factor. The data support the hypothesized causal path. The findings start unveiling the psychic distance paradox through the integration of the literatures on psychic distance and global virtual teams

Peran Ekspatriat dalam Penguatan Kompetensi Inti Perusahaan

. Kompetensi inti (KI) menjadi hal penting bagi Perusahaan dikarenakan perannya dalam menentukan keunggulan bersaingnya. KI dihasilkan melalui pembelajaran oleh SDM Perusahaan melalui sumber pengetahuan internal dan eksternal. Salah satu sumber pengetahuan eksternal yang penting bagi Perusahaan adalah ekspatriat. Namun demikian, disamping pemanfaatan ekspatriat yang belum optimal di Indonesia terutama dalam hal knowledge transfer (KT), belum banyak pula literatur yang mengeksplorasi hal ini. Tulisan ini membahas peran ekspatriat dalam penguatan KI dari Perusahaan lokal di Indonesia. Penelitian kualitatif dengan multiple case studies melalui wawancara dan observasi di Perusahaan ini menemukan bahwa ekspatriat cenderung berperan memperkuat KI yang telah ada di Perusahaan. Pengetahuan dari ekspatriat berperan mengisi gap of knowledge dari individu/tim sebagai pendamping dari ekspatriat. Dengan didukung oleh keahlian dan pengetahuan yang telah dimiliki, tenaga lokal dapat meningkatkan kapabilitas serta kapasitasnya, sehingga akumulasinya dapat membentuk kompetensi individu/tim. Dengan didukung oleh KI yang ada, tercipta KI yang lebih kuat. KT dari ekspatriat juga berperan membentuk budaya baru di Perusahaan. Production capability (PC) yang terbentuk lebih banyak didukung oleh explicit knowledge dari ekspatriat, sedangkan innovation capability (IC) lebih banyak terbentuk melalui akuisisi tacit knowledge dari ekspatriat. PC dan IC tersebut membentuk kompetensi individu dan tim yang memperkuat KI Perusahaan

Factors affecting knowledge transfer and absorptive capacity in multinational corporations

With the increasing speed of competition, knowledge management has become a critical competitive weapon.The process of knowledge transfer between business units is an essential aspect of knowledge management.The ability to transfer knowledge internally is one of the main competitive advantages of multinational corporations.In this paper we will explore knowledge transfer and absorptive capacity in multinational corporations. Were view relevant literature on knowledge management especially for knowledge transfer and absorptive capacity. The objective of our study is two fold.First, conceptualize of absorptive capacity by emphasizing both ability and motivation.Second, explore the internal transfer of knowledge by multinational corporations.Based on the literature review, the absorptive capacity of the receiving unit is the most critical determinant of internal knowledge transfer in MNCs (Gupta and Govindarajan, 2000). However, the existing literature on absorptive capacity often do not capturing the various facets of absorptive capacity. We suggest that absorptive capacity should be comprised of both employees’ ability and motivation. Both ability and motivation can facilitate knowledge transfer from other parts of the MNC. Also, we expect to discover that the absorptive capacity of the subsidiary facilitates transfer of knowledge from other parts of the multinational corporations