Nicola Berg

Knowledge Transfer in Multinational Corporations: Evidence from German Firms

In recent years, several theoretical and empirical studies in the field of organizational knowledge management were published. With rare exceptions, however, little attention has been paid to the specific aspects of knowledge transfer within MNCs.

Public Affairs Management Activities of German Multinational Corporations in India

In this paper the importance of public affairs management in multinational corporations in India will be examined. After briefly discussing the state of the art in international business and society literature, a conceptual framework for public affairs management in multinational corporations will be developed. This framework serves as the theoretical basis for an empirical study among German multinational corporations in India. In the main part of this paper the results of this study will be presented and discussed. The paper ends with a critical assessment and some major implications for future studies.

Global teams: a network analysis

Purpose – In the last few years, several empirical studies about the determinants and success factors of global teams have been published. While these studies show many interesting results, they are often focused on single variables such as cultural homogeneity, cooperation length, or task complexity, but rarely analyze the complex relationships between these concepts. The aim of this paper is to explore how members of global teams consider the relevance of different determinants of their cooperation, how these determinants are interrelated, and how they influence team performance.Design/methodology/approach – In this paper, a network study of global teams in the automotive and airline industries is presented. Based on interviews with the members of nine teams in three companies the software programs NVivo and UCINET were applied for a construct causal network analysis of the relationships between various team characteristics and their impact on team performance.Findings – The study shows that the interac...

Building competitive advantage through social intrapreneurship

Purpose – The paper seeks to offer a novel perspective on “deep benefit management” in inclusive business ventures at the Base‐of‐the‐Pyramid (BoP). Furthermore, it explores tensions between social impact creation and financial objectives in multinational corporations (MNCs).Design/methodology/approach – The paper opts for an exploratory research design using empirical data, including an expert interview survey and expert discussions. Data is supplemented by documentary analysis, including corporate publications as well as case and impact studies. The paper applies a nested cross‐case comparison of three sustainability driven initiatives of PHILIPS Electronics.Findings – The paper provides empirical insights on value creation for customers and partners. Findings indicate the need for “external benefit management”. In addition, MNCs can gain financial as well as non‐financial benefits by venturing at the BoP. “Internal benefit management” should consider employee engagement, reputation, and partnering capa...

Learning style preferences and the perceived usefulness of e-learning

This paper uses data gathered from 953 students to investigate in how far individuals’ preferences for a particular learning style are associated with the perceived usefulness of e-learning. Our findings reveal the effect of individuals’ learning styles as well as their gender and professional experience on the perceived usefulness of different forms of e-learning. The studys findings enhance our understanding of the usefulness of different e-learning tools from a learner perspective and thus have implications for curriculum design. The study also contributes to the empirical basis on the relevance of learning styles in the design of virtual learning environments.

Globale Teams: Eine kritische Analyse des gegenwärtigen Forschungsstands **

Globale Teams besitzen in vielen Branchen und Unternehmungsbereichen eine hohe Aktualität und praktische Relevanz. Entsprechend viele empirische Untersuchungen ihrer Einflussgrößen und Erfolgsfaktoren sind in den letzten Jahren veröffentlicht worden. Der gegenwärtige Forschungsstand ist einerseits durch viele interessante Einzelbefunde, andererseits aber auch durch zahlreiche Widersprüche gekennzeichnet. Ursachen dafür sind methodische Schwächen der vorliegenden Untersuchungen sowie deren unzureichende theoretische Fundierung.

Public Affairs-Management in Multinationalen Unternehmungen - Ergebnisse einer empirischen Untersuchung deutscher Unternehmungen in Indien

Multinationale Unternehmungen sind in besonderem Mase dem Einflus externer soziopolitischer Stakeholder (Interessengruppen) ausgesetzt. Kulturelle Differenzen, mangelnde Kenntnisse der jeweiligen nationalen Bedingungen und nicht zuletzt die vor allem in vielen ehemaligen Kolonialstaaten vorhandene Angst vor auslandischer Bevormundung tragen dazu bei, das Unternehmungen auf auslandischen Markten weitaus haufiger als im nationalen Kontext mit Konflikten mit den jeweiligen Gastlandregierungen, lokalen Behorden, Gewerkschaften oder Religionsgemeinschaften konfrontiert sind. Die unzureichende Berucksichtigung oder gar Misachtung dieser Interessen kann nicht nur zu Imageeinbusen oder moralischer Verurteilung, sondern auch zu fi-nanziellen Einbusen und anderen negativen Folgen fur die Wettbewerbsfahigkeit fuhren.

Verhaltenskodizes für Multinationale Unternehmungen — Das Beispiel Global Compact

Seit dem Ende des Zweiten Weltkriegs hat die Liberalisierung des Welthandels wesentlich zur Steigerung des Wohlstands in den meisten Landern der Welt beigetragen. Der Abbau von tarifaren und nicht-tarifaren Handelshemmnissen im Rahmen des GATT und der WTO, die Offnung vieler Volkswirtschaften fur Direktinvestitionen auslandischer Unternehmungen und die Angleichung von Rechtsnormen haben dazu gefuhrt, dass ausenwirtschaftliche Aktivitaten eine wesentliche Quelle des Wirtschaftswachstums darstellen. Daruber hinaus uben die Globalisierung der Kapitalmarkte, neue Informations-und Kommunikationstechnologien sowie politische Integrationsprozesse in vielen Regionen der Welt wichtige Impulse aus (vgl. Welge, Holtbrugge 2001, S. 16 ff.).

Liability of Emergingness of Emerging Market Multinationals in Developed Markets: A Conceptual Approach

In foreign markets, multinational enterprises (MNEs) need to manage in host countries applying the given rules of the game (North, 1990). While some foreign companies successfully manage a new institutional environment, others are not able to gain legitimacy and have difficulties in overcoming their liability of foreignness (LOF). LOF can arise from different sources, such as geographic distance between home and host countries, the foreign company’s unfamiliarity with the host-country specifics or unfavorable treatments of host-country nationals (Hymer, 1976; Zaheer, 1995). It weakens a company’s competitive advantage in foreign markets and consequently needs to be mitigated (Luo and Mezias, 2002; Luo, Shenkar and Nyaw, 2002; Suchman, 1995).

What Do they Expect, and What Do We Need to Offer? A Classification of Repatriation Strategies from the MNC Perspective

Despite considerable research on the topic today, repatriation remains a struggle for MNCs. Difficulties thereby frequently revolve around the matter of repatriate careers. Upon return from international assignments, employees tend to expect a promotion as reward for their efforts overseas. Performance decreases and turnovers are otherwise likely. For the firm, this entails the risk of a withdrawal of the potentially valuable human capital repatriates gained abroad. Yet, providing every returnee with a more attractive position in consequence of an international assignment is no solution to the problem, as this would require extensive corporate resources. Differences between assignments must thus be taken into account to be able to decide for which employees the experience should serve as career steppingstone, and how to handle the return of those for which it should not. This study draws on the resource-based view and psychological contract theory to develop a set of repatriation strategies that integrates organizational and individual interests to provide MNCs with diverse approaches to managing returnees. We then derive organizational prerequisites for the successful implementation of those strategies. We thereby offer a concrete approach to solving the MNCs’ career-related struggle upon repatriation.