Martin J. Carter

Language and Social Knowledge in Foreign-Knowledge Transfer to China

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.

Managing Cross-Border Complementary Knowledge: Conceptual Developments in the Business Process Approach to Knowledge Management in Multinational Firms

The current explosion of interest in ‘knowledge management’ within firms (Nonaka and Takeuchi, 1995; von Krogh and Roos, 1996; Grant, 1997; Stewart, 1997; Boisot, 1998; Teece, 1998)1 illustrates the strong linkage between the process of managing a firm’s knowledge assets and the global competitiveness of the firm. Gaining value from the intangible assets a firm possesses is a key component in achieving the strongest possible competitive stance. Techniques of knowledge management are transferable within the firm, but only at a cost. This cost will be lower the more permeable are the internal dimensions of the firm. Thus organizational and cultural barriers internal to the firm become a prime concern when the firm’s management is seeking the most effective use of its intangible knowledge assets. It is an arguable proposition that the ability to manage knowledge will have a culture-specific element, and therefore, to some degree, a nation-specific aspect. Knowledge management therefore provides a key link between a firm’s global competitiveness and the national attractiveness of particular locations and of the national ownership of successful global firms.

Knowledge Management in Global Technology Markets: Applying Theory to Practice

It has been known for centuries that the appropriate use of knowledge is a critical determinant of effective organization. During the 1990s however, discussion of knowledge in the management and economics literatures changed. Ideas concerning knowledge were once the concern of scholars seeking theoretical explanations of organizational structures and practices. We now see that practice is making use of theory in new and interesting ways. Ideas which explain strategic success are being used to design strategies to improve the firm’s ability to capture more of the potential value from the knowledge they and their members have, or can acquire.

The Economics of Business Process Design in Multinational Firms

The declared aim of this chapter is to bring together insights from the work of economists and management theorists on questions of the organisation of the firm. Each approach has much to offer the other. Economists interested in the organisation of international business have tended to focus on questions of the boundaries of the organisation; that is, of its exlemlll structure. The analysis of transaction costs has been used, for example, to explicate the decision to export, to license or to manufacture overseas, and also the participation in gv s and alliances (Buckley and Casson, 1976, 1985; Buckley and Glaister, 1994). However, a good deal of attention in the management literature is applied to the debate about internal organisation. Writers on management have promoted new structures and new approaches to organisation, using ideas from many sources. These include studies of Japanese business (Pascale and Athos, 1981), of successful American businesses (Peters and Waterman, 1982) and the analysis of quality management (Deming, 1986). This contribution is an attempt to apply insights from the transaction cost approach to questions of internal organisation of the kind addressed in this management literature.

Governing Knowledge Sharing in Multinational Enterprises

The paper examines knowledge sharing processes in four multinational firms. It derives five propositions from the literature on governing knowledge processes and utilises these propositions in an examination of the four firms. The propositions examine knowledge sharing, intra-organisational governance of knowledge, knowledge frontiers within and between firms and ‘application’ and ‘discovery’ strategies in governing knowledge.