Knowledge Governance and Value Creation

Since its inception the field of MNC research notices that knowledge is key in the explanation of the existence, boundaries, internal structure, and competitive advantage of the MNC. No doubt, the governance of knowledge flows has remained a central theme in a large body of current academic work concerned with managerial practices in the MNC. The modern MNC is considered to be a ‘differentiated network’, where knowledge is created in various parts of the MNC and transferred to several interrelated units (Hedlund, 1986; Bartlett and Ghoshal, 1989; Gupta and Govindarajan, 1991, 2000). In this perspective, MNCs are no longer seen as repositories of their national imprint but rather as instruments, through which knowledge is accumulated in various local contexts and transferred horizontally between subsidiaries, shared vertically in headquarters-subsidiary relations, and between the MNC and its environment.

[1]  L. Argote.  Organizational Learning: Creating, Retaining and Transferring Knowledge , 1999 .

[2]  Marjorie A. Lyles.  Learning among joint venture sophisticated firms , 1987 .

[3]  Marjorie A. Lyles,et al.  Knowledge acquisition from foreign parents in international joint ventures: an empirical examination in the Hungarian context , 1996 .

[4]  F. Hayek.  The economic nature of the firm: The use of knowledge in society , 1945 .

[5]  B. Kogut,et al.  Knowledge of the firm and the evolutionary theory of the multinational corporation , 1993 .

[6]  H. Demsetz,et al.  Production, Information Costs, and Economic Organization , 1975, IEEE Engineering Management Review.

[7]  Martin J. Carter.  Managing Cross-Border Complementary Knowledge: Conceptual Developments in the Business Process Approach to Knowledge Management in Multinational Firms , 1999 .

[8]  Paul R. Milgrom,et al.  Employment Contracts, Influence Activities, and Efficient Organization Design , 1987, Journal of Political Economy.

[9]  Daniel A. Levinthal,et al.  ABSORPTIVE CAPACITY: A NEW PERSPECTIVE ON LEARNING AND INNOVATION , 1990 .

[10]  Nicolai J. Foss,et al.  Selective Intervention and Internal Hybrids : Interpreting and Learning from the Rise and Decline of the Oticon Spaghetti Organization , 2001 .

[11]  George P. Baker,et al.  Informal Authority in Organizations , 1999 .

[12]  J. Love.  Knowledge, Market Failure and the Multinational Enterprise: A Theoretical Note , 1995 .

[13]  R. Grant.  Toward a Knowledge-Based Theory of the Firm,” Strategic Management Journal (17), pp. , 1996 .

[14]  Anil K. Gupta,et al.  Knowledge Flows and the Structure of Control Within Multinational Corporations , 1991 .

[15]  G. Hedlund.  The hypermodern MNC—A heterarchy? , 1986 .

[16]  W. Kuemmerle.  The Drivers of Foreign Direct Investment into Research and Development: An Empirical Investigation , 1999 .

[17]  Volker Mahnke,et al.  Knowledge Management What Can Organizational Economics Contribute , 2003 .

[18]  Anna Grandori,et al.  Neither Hierarchy nor Identity: Knowledge-Governance Mechanisms and the Theory of the Firm , 2001 .

[19]  Marjorie A. Lyles,et al.  Absorptive capacity, learning, and performance in international joint ventures , 2001 .

[20]  H. Demsetz.  The Theory of the Firm Revisited , 1988 .

[21]  M. Boisot.  Knowledge Assets: Securing Competitive Advantage in the Information Economy , 1998 .

[22]  I. Nonaka,et al.  The Knowledge Creating Company , 2008 .

[23]  S. Zahra,et al.  Absorptive Capacity: A Review, Reconceptualization, and Extension , 2002 .

[24]  William G. Ouchi,et al.  Markets, Bureaucracies, and Clans. , 1980 .

[25]  O. Williamson,et al.  The mechanisms of governance , 1996 .

[26]  G. Hamel.  Competition for competence and interpartner learning within international strategic alliances , 1991 .

[27]  K. R. Conner,et al.  A Resource-Based Theory of the Firm: Knowledge Versus Opportunism , 1996 .

[28]  A. Madhok.  Crossroads---The Organization of Economic Activity: Transaction Costs, Firm Capabilities, and the Nature of Governance , 1996 .

[29]  Anil K. Gupta,et al.  Knowledge flows within multinational corporations , 2000 .

[30]  M. Gordon,et al.  PUBLICATION RECORDS AND TENURE DECISIONS IN THE FIELD OF STRATEGIC MANAGEMENT , 1996 .

[31]  C. Bartlett,et al.  Managing across Borders: The Transnational Solution , 1990 .

[32]  Gabriel Szulanski.  Exploring internal stickiness: Impediments to the transfer of best practice within the firm , 1996 .

[33]  S. Ghoshal,et al.  Theories of Economic Organization: The Case for Realism and Balance , 1996 .

[34]  B. Kogut,et al.  Knowledge of the Firm, Combinative Capabilities, and the Replication of Technology , 1992 .