Hui Tan

Bio: Hui Tan is an academic researcher from Royal Holloway, University of London. The author has contributed to research in topics: Knowledge transfer & China. The author has an hindex of 14, co-authored 25 publications receiving 992 citations. Previous affiliations of Hui Tan include University of Leeds & University of Bath.

Historic and Emergent Trends in Chinese Outward Direct Investment

Abstract: A substantial body of literature has grown on the prominence of China as a recipient of foreign direct investment (FDI) and its consequences for national economic development and management practice (Branstetter and Lardy, 2006). By contrast, much less attention has been paid to China’s position as an FDI source. Given that China attracted an annual average FDI inflow of around US$29bn (or more than 7% of the world’s total) in the 1990s, but contributed less than US$2.5bn (around 0.6%) to global outflows, this is perhaps not surprising (UNCTAD, 2006). However, the sharp growth in Chinese outward direct investment (ODI) evident since 2002 (illustrated in Figure 7.1) combined with a number of recent high profile attempts by Chinese enterprises to acquire North American and European firms have brought into relief China’s rising status and potential as an investor nation. This potential is recognised in a recent UNCTAD survey of investment promotion agencies which predicts that China will become a ‘top three’source country for FDI before the end of 2008 (UNCTAD, 2005). It is also highlighted by the Director-General of UNIDO, Kandeh Yumkella, who suggests that annual flows of Chinese outbound investment are likely to reach US$60bn by 2010 (MOFCOM, 2006). If growth rates in Chinese ODI continue and these predictions are realised, China’s contribution to global FDI flows is likely to approximate current outflows of the leading industrialised countries.

Language and Social Knowledge in Foreign-Knowledge Transfer to China

Abstract: This paper establishes that transfer of knowledge across national borders within multinational enterprises depends both on a common language necessary for communication and on the shared social knowledge necessary to understand and predict the behavior of those engaged in the knowledge-transfer process. In a set of four case studies, it was found that knowledge transfer is more effective when technical and social knowledge are transferred together. Besides, ownership structure affects the understanding and transfer of social knowledge, while rich person-to-person contact in multinational teams provides an effective means of transferring social knowledge.

The Art of Knowledge Transfer: Secondary and Reverse Transfer in China’s Telecommunications Manufacturing Industry

Abstract: This paper extends the theory on knowledge transfer and learning within multinational firms. It provides a theory-building study grounded in the context of the entry and operations of foreign multinational enterprises in the Chinese manufacturing industry.

The knowledge-creating company : how Japanese companies create the dynamics of innovation

Abstract: How has Japan become a major economic power, a world leader in the automotive and electronics industries? What is the secret of their success? The consensus has been that, though the Japanese are not particularly innovative, they are exceptionally skilful at imitation, at improving products that already exist. But now two leading Japanese business experts, Ikujiro Nonaka and Hiro Takeuchi, turn this conventional wisdom on its head: Japanese firms are successful, they contend, precisely because they are innovative, because they create new knowledge and use it to produce successful products and technologies. Examining case studies drawn from such firms as Honda, Canon, Matsushita, NEC, 3M, GE, and the U.S. Marines, this book reveals how Japanese companies translate tacit to explicit knowledge and use it to produce new processes, products, and services.

The knowledge-creating company

Abstract: How have Japanese companies become world leaders in the automotive and electronics industries, among others? What is the secret of their success? Two leading Japanese business experts, Ikujiro Nonaka and Hirotaka Takeuchi, are the first to tie the success of Japanese companies to their ability to create new knowledge and use it to produce successful products and technologies. In The Knowledge-Creating Company, Nonaka and Takeuchi provide an inside look at how Japanese companies go about creating this new knowledge organizationally. The authors point out that there are two types of knowledge: explicit knowledge, contained in manuals and procedures, and tacit knowledge, learned only by experience, and communicated only indirectly, through metaphor and analogy. U.S. managers focus on explicit knowledge. The Japanese, on the other hand, focus on tacit knowledge. And this, the authors argue, is the key to their success--the Japanese have learned how to transform tacit into explicit knowledge. To explain how this is done--and illuminate Japanese business practices as they do so--the authors range from Greek philosophy to Zen Buddhism, from classical economists to modern management gurus, illustrating the theory of organizational knowledge creation with case studies drawn from such firms as Honda, Canon, Matsushita, NEC, Nissan, 3M, GE, and even the U.S. Marines. For instance, using Matsushita's development of the Home Bakery (the world's first fully automated bread-baking machine for home use), they show how tacit knowledge can be converted to explicit knowledge: when the designers couldn't perfect the dough kneading mechanism, a software programmer apprenticed herself withthe master baker at Osaka International Hotel, gained a tacit understanding of kneading, and then conveyed this information to the engineers. In addition, the authors show that, to create knowledge, the best management style is neither top-down nor bottom-up, but rather what they call "middle-up-down," in which the middle managers form a bridge between the ideals of top management and the chaotic realities of the frontline. As we make the turn into the 21st century, a new society is emerging. Peter Drucker calls it the "knowledge society," one that is drastically different from the "industrial society," and one in which acquiring and applying knowledge will become key competitive factors. Nonaka and Takeuchi go a step further, arguing that creating knowledge will become the key to sustaining a competitive advantage in the future. Because the competitive environment and customer preferences changes constantly, knowledge perishes quickly. With The Knowledge-Creating Company, managers have at their fingertips years of insight from Japanese firms that reveal how to create knowledge continuously, and how to exploit it to make successful new products, services, and systems.

Personal Knowledge: Towards a Post-Critical Philosophy

Abstract: The Study of Man. By Michael Polanyi. Price, $1.75. Pp. 102. University of Chicago Press, 5750 Ellis Ave., Chicago 37, 1959. One subtitle to Polanyi's challenging and fascinating book might be The Evolution and Natural History of Error , for Polanyi is at pains to expunge what he believes to be the false notion contained in the contemporary view of science which treats it as an object and basically impersonal discipline. According to Polanyi not only is this a radical and important error, but it is harmful to the objectives of science itself. Another subtitle could be Farewell to Detachment , for in place of cold objectivity he develops the idea that science is necessarily intensely personal. It is a human endeavor and human point of view which cannot be divorced from nor uprooted out of the human matrix from which it arises and in which it works. For a good while

Management of research. introduction

Abstract: The purpose and functions of the Highway Research Board's Committee on Conduct of Research are set forth, and papers sponsored by the Committee and presented at the Annual Meetings of the Highway Research Board are mentioned. The Committee, which seeks to improve the quality and effectiveness of research, serves as a forum for the exhange of ideas and the delineation of the problems associated with the various methods of organizing and administering research programs, the consideration of project design and instrumentation, and the application of research findings in the transportation field. The Committee has sponsored Annual Meeting sessions (in 1969, 1973, and 1974) on various aspects (selection, design, and supervision of projects as well as the implementation of results and evaluation of the benefits) of research management. Papers presented at the 1969 sessions were published in Highway Research Record 338. Eight papers presented at the 1973 sessions are included in this publication.