The impact of distance on knowledge transfer effectiveness in multinational corporations

By Tina C. Ambos, Björn Ambos. 2009

467 citations recorded by the source corpus.

This paper aims to shed light on the interplay of knowledge transfer mechanisms and distance within the MNC. While it is largely undisputed that cross-boarder knowledge flows contribute to the firm's success, our knowledge on the effects of specific transfer mechanisms is scarce. We examine the impact of different dimensions of distance to test the applicability of personal coordination mechanisms (PCM) and technology-based coordination mechanisms (TCM) in situations of differentiation and dispersion. Data on 324 knowledge transfer relationships of MNC units was used to test our hypotheses. While TCM function relatively context-free, we find that PCM are moderated by distance. Our results support moderating effects of geographic, cultural and linguistic distance, which are vital to our understanding of knowledge transfer effectiveness in MNCs.

Subfields: Communication, Organizational Behavior and Human Resource Management, Strategy and Management

View Paper: https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/6aec5defb8389b9b2ec58e7bea9ede3d1d0b191e

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Citations in the corpus

Parent Company Benefits from Reverse Knowledge Transfer: The Role of the Liability of Newness in MNEs (2011, methodology): “Drawing on extant research (Ambos & Ambos, 2009; Ambos et al., 2006), the adoption of this perceptual measure allows us to account for the fact that not every knowledge transfer translates into added value and that it is not the mere replication of a sender’s message by the recipient that is…”
How remote are R&D labs? Distance factors and international innovative activities (2013, background): “Muralidharan and Phatak (1999) and Ambos and Ambos (2011), using survey data from US and GermanMNEs, both find evidence that cultural distance is a significant determinant of R&D activity in host countries.”
Microfoundations in international management research: The case of knowledge sharing in multinational corporations (2019, background): “…9 of the studies use more than one informant to confirm the knowledge sharing, e.g., in a case of knowledge sharing among parent and Journal of International Business Studies subsidiary where data are collected at both the parent and subsidiary level (as in the article by Ambos and Ambos, 2009).”
Subsidiary Roles and Reverse Knowledge Transfer: An Investigation of the Effects of Coordination Mechanisms (2011, background): “8 effect of coordination mechanisms, such as the decentralization of decision making, personal coordination mechanisms and electronic-based coordination mechanisms, on knowledge transfer processes (Ambos and Ambos, 2009; Gupta and Govindarajan, 2000; Håkanson and Nobel, 2001; Noorderhaven and Harzin”
The nature of innovation in global value chains (2021, background): “…the spatial transaction costs related to the involvement of several locations tend to increase even if communication and transportation costs are decreasing over time (Ambos & Ambos, 2009; Beugelsdijk & Mudambi, 2014; Gray, Siemsen, & Vasudeva, 2015; Hannigan, Cano-Kollmann, & Mudambi, 2015).”
Knowledge transfer in multinational corporations: Productive and counterproductive effects of language-sensitive recruitment (2014, background): “Previous research in this area suggests that language commonality facilitates identification with the MNC, which in turn enhances knowledge transfer (Ambos & Ambos, 2009; Barner-Rasmussen & Björkman, 2007; Phene et al., 2005).”
Foreign subsidiary CSR as a buffer against parent firm reputation risk (2020, background): “Similarly, cultural distance has long been recognized as an important factor in influencing the efficiency of knowledge transfer (Ambos & Ambos, 2009; Fabry & Zeghni, 2003; Simonin, 1999).”
A retrospective on: MNC knowledge transfer, subsidiary absorptive capacity, and HRM (2013, background): “(2007), Ambos and Ambos (2009), Williams (2009); Williams and”