A Game Theoretic Analysis of the Conditions of Knowledge Transfer by New Employees in Companies

The availability of knowledge is an essential factor for an economy in global competition. Companies realise innovations by creating and implementing new knowledge. Sources of innovative ideas are partners in the production network but also new employees coming from another company or academia. Based on a model by HECKATHORN (1996) the conditions of efficient knowledge transfer in a team are analysed. Offering knowledge to a colleague can not be controlled directly by the company due to information asymmetries. Thus the management has to provide incentives which motivate the employees to act in favour of the company by providing their knowledge to the rest of the team and likewise to learn from colleagues. The game theoretic analysis aims at investigating how to arrange these incentives efficiently. Several factors are relevant, especially the individual costs of participating in the transfer. These consist mainly of the existing absorptive capacity and the working atmosphere. The model is a 2x2 game but is at least partly generalised on more players. The relevance of the adequate team size is shown: more developers may increase the total profit of an innovation (before paying the involved people) but when additional wages are paid to each person a greater team decreases the remaining company profit. A further result is that depending on the cost structure perfect knowledge transfer is not always best for the profit of the company. These formal results are consistent with empirical studies to the absorptive capacity and the working atmosphere.knowledge transfer, innovation, game theory, absorptive capacity

Management consulting.

Including a lengthy, comprehensive introduction, this important collection brings together some of the most influential papers that have contributed to our understanding of management consultancy work. The two-volume set encompasses the breadth of conceptual and empirical perspectives and explores those key ideas that have helped to advance our knowledge of this intriguing area. The volumes are divided into a series of thematic sections, affording the reader easy access to a great resource of information. Professors Clark and Avakian have written an original introduction which provides a comprehensive overview of the literature

Greenfield or Acquisition Entry: A Review of the Empirical Foreign Establishment Mode Literature

This paper reviews the empirical literature on the determinants of the choice by multinational enterprises between entering foreign countries through greenfields or acquisitions. We discuss and compare the main theoretical perspectives used, provide a detailed overview of the empirical findings, examine why these findings have often been inconsistent, and offer theoretical and methodological suggestions to guide future research.review;establishment mode choice;acquisition;greenfield

Knowledge transfer and home-market innovativeness:A comparison of emerging and advanced economy multinationals

Emerging market multinational enterprises (EMNEs) increasingly access foreign technology and knowledge by internationalizing their R&D activities. Since technological laggardness hinders efficient knowledge transfer, a successful catch-up with advanced-economy multinational enterprises (AMNEs) requires EMNEs to transfer foreign knowledge across national boundaries more effectively. However, we lack a clear understanding of how EMNEs manage this knowledge transfer and integration and to what extent the employment and effectiveness of corresponding facilitation mechanisms may differ from AMNEs. Adopting a sender-recipient model and drawing on arguments from learning theory and transaction costs economics, we suggest that EMNEs benefit more from and, consequently, are more likely to engage in mechanisms to increase recipient capabilities and sender motivation. In a comparative analysis of Chinese, Indian, German, and U.S. MNEs and focusing on frequent international exchange of R&D personnel regarding recipient capabilities and the governance of foreign R&D activities regarding sender motivation, we observe positive relationships with home-market innovation for EMNEs, but not for AMNEs. Moreover, we observe that EMNEs exploit this positive effect and are more likely to use these mechanisms when focusing on technology- than on market-seeking

Emerging market MNEs as meta-integrators: the importance of internal networks

The modern MNE has to be a ‘meta-integrator’, able to leverage knowledge within and between its different constituent affiliates, which requires efficient internal markets and well-structured cross-border hierarchies. The current generation of EMNEs need to strengthen their ownership advantages to achieve such internal embeddedness, which are hard to acquire, and must be learnt. I frame this discussion in the ongoing debate about the nature of ownership advantages. The ability to be competitive in an era of globalisation depends as much on the EMNE’s technological assets as it does on its ability to achieve economies of common governance. The EMNE has to be able to promote internal knowledge flows, both to and from the parent, as well as between affiliates located in different countries. This is essential to achieve organisational, scale and scope economies

The sharing and transfer of context specific knowledge in a product support environment

peer-reviewedResearch on knowledge intensive services argues that service firms possess deeper expert knowledge which they co-produce and share with clients and which tends to result in context specific knowledge (Nordin et al., 2011; Edvardsson et al., 2005; Freel, 2006; Wong and He, 2005). A key knowledge development capability is codifying this knowledge to enable its efficient transfer without losing the specialisation and context specific nature from which its value derives. A case study is presented of a knowledge intensive service company providing product support for business clients' technical hardware and software problems through codification of solution procedures within their applicable contexts. This paper examines the effects of codification on how service work is performed and how the client relationship is structured. It finds that increased codification resulted in workers engaging in a number of informal work practices that improved the re-use of codified service procedures, increased their problem-solving capabilities and made the service provision function more efficient for the firm.ACCEPTEDpeer-reviewe

The adoption and adaptation of good practice : Cross-national knowledge transfer in placemaking using the peer review method

The transfer of knowledge is a prominent feature in transnational networks regardless of whether they are aimed at practitioners, policy makers or researchers. Yet the process of transferring knowledge between countries and organisations is poorly understood, while the inclusion of citizens in the knowledge transfer process receives very little attention. This paper makes a contribution towards closing this gap in knowledge by presenting the outcomes of transnational knowledge transfer project aimed at community engagement in placemaking processes. The paper analyses the process and the outcomes of the knowledge transfer before critically discussing the barriers and challenges that were encountered. It concludes that knowledge exchange needs to be organised not only between officials but also between them and the communities they want to engage in their home cities. The concept of shared leadership has been found to capture the dynamics of knowledge exchanges well, but to ensure that organisations benefit from the application of new knowledge shared leadership needs to be balanced with strong strategic leadership. The implications of including citizens in a learning process through which tactic knowledge is shared between officials and communities are also discussed.Non peer reviewedSubmitted Versio

The effects of partner protectiveness and transfer capacity on degree of inter-firm technology transfer in international joint ventures

Based on the underlying knowledge-based view (KBV) and organizational learning (OL) perspectives, the main objective of this paper is to empirically examine the effects of two critical elements of technology supplier characteristics: partner protectiveness and transfer capacity on two dimensions of degree of technology transfer: degree of tacit and explicit knowledge. Using the quantitative analytical approach, the theoretical model and hypotheses in this study were tested based on empirical data gathered from 128 joint venture companies registered with the Registrar of Companies of Malaysia (ROC). Data obtained from the survey questionnaires were analyzed using the correlation coefficients and multiple linear regression analyses. The results revealed that partner protectiveness, as the critical element of technology recipient characteristics, has 1) a low significant effect on degrees of tacit knowledge, and 2) no significant effect on degree of explicit knowledge. Nonetheless, transfer capacity showed strong significant effects on both degrees of tacit and explicit knowledge; where the effect on degree of explicit knowledge is slightly stronger that its effect on degree of tacit knowledge. The study has bridged the literature gaps in such that it offers empirical evidence on the effects of two generic technology supplier attributes: partner protectiveness and transfer capacity on degree of inter-firm technology transfer: degree of tacit and explicit knowledge in IJVs

Management of R & D cooperation

Because of the high degree of technological complexity and the increasing convergence of new technologies, it is becoming more and more difficult to develop advanced products for those companies who solely rely on their own in-house 'core competencies'. One possible response made to these rising requirements is the consideration of cooperation with other companies. Since prior research on cooperation is extensive in its theoretical scope and diverse in its disciplinary bases, it seems appropriate to give a short overview on the literature. In this article, we pursue two purposes: Firstly, we provide a brief and comprehensive picture of theoretical findings on technology-related cooperation pertinent to practitioners by using a process-oriented framework which helps us to integrate the existing literature from different academic disciplines. Secondly, while management scholars have primarily tended to focus on certain research streams, we draw attention to some issues not sufficiently covered by the literature today. We highlight the importance of the technological content (incremental vs. breakthrough and product vs. process innovations) as well as the orientation of the cooperation (horizontal vs. lateral) which should be considered in more detail in future research. --