Journal ArticleDOI
Knowledge of the Firm and the Evolutionary Theory of the Multinational Corporation
Bruce Kogut,Udo Zander +1 more
Reads0
Chats0
TLDR
The authors empirically examined the decision to transfer the capability to manufacture new products to wholly owned subsidiaries or to other parties and found that the less codifiable and the harder to teach is the technology, the more likely the transfer will be to wholly-owned operations.Abstract:
Firms are social communities that specialize in the creation and internal transfer of knowledge. The multinational corporation arises not out of the failure of markets for the buying and selling of knowledge, but out of its superior efficiency as an organizational vehicle by which to transfer this knowledge across borders. We test the claim that firms specialize in the internal transfer of tacit knowledge by empirically examining the decision to transfer the capability to manufacture new products to wholly owned subsidiaries or to other parties. The empirical results show that the less codifiable and the harder to teach is the technology, the more likely the transfer will be to wholly owned operations. This result implies that the choice of transfer mode is determined by the efficiency of the multinational corporation in transferring knowledge relative to other firms, not relative to an abstract market transaction. The notion of the firm as specializing in the transfer and recombination of knowledge is the foundation to an evolutionary theory of the multinational corporation.read more
Citations
More filters
Journal ArticleDOI
Social Capital, Intellectual Capital, and the Organizational Advantage
Janine Nahapiet,Sumantra Ghoshal +1 more
TL;DR: In this article, the authors present a model that incorporates this overall argument in the form of a series of hypothesized relationships between different dimensions of social capital and the main mechanisms and proces.
Journal ArticleDOI
Knowledge Management: An Organizational Capabilities Perspective
TL;DR: This research suggests that a knowledge infrastructure consisting of technology, structure, and culture along with a knowledge process architecture of acquisition, conversion, application, and protection are essential organizational capabilities or "preconditions" for effective knowledge management.
Journal ArticleDOI
Knowledge flows within multinational corporations
Anil K. Gupta,Vijay Govindarajan +1 more
TL;DR: In this article, a nodal (i.e., subsidiary) level analysis of knowledge transfer within multinational corporations (MNCs) is proposed, where the authors predict that knowledge outflows from a subsidiary would be positively associated with value of the subsidiary's knowledge stock, its motivational disposition to share knowledge, and the richness of transmission channels.
Journal ArticleDOI
What Firms Do? Coordination, Identity, and Learning
Bruce Kogut,Udo Zander +1 more
TL;DR: In this article, the authors return to Coase's original insight in understanding the cost and benefits of a firm but based on a view that individuals are characterized by an "unsocial sociality".
Journal ArticleDOI
International Diversification: Effects on Innovation and Firm Performance in Product-Diversified Firms
TL;DR: Theory suggests and results show that firm performance is initially positive but eventually levels off and becomes negative as international diversification increases as mentioned in this paper, and product diversification moderates firm performance.
References
More filters
Book
Diffusion of Innovations
TL;DR: A history of diffusion research can be found in this paper, where the authors present a glossary of developments in the field of Diffusion research and discuss the consequences of these developments.
Posted Content
An Evolutionary Theory of Economic Change
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors developed an evolutionary theory of the capabilities and behavior of business firms operating in a market environment, including both general discussion and the manipulation of specific simulation models consistent with that theory.