Knowledge transfer and expatriation practices in MNCs: the role of disseminative capacity

There is a limited amount of studies, which investigate how different managerial practices may influence the behavior of knowledge senders in multinational corporations (MNCs). This paper addresses this gap by looking at whether and how certain expatriation practices can enhance a) the ability and b) the willingness of expatriates to transfer the knowledge they possess from the headquarters to the respective subsidiaries. By stepping on two bodies of literature, namely the knowledge transfer literature and the expatriation literature, we suggest that MNCs may enhance the expatriates’ willingness to transfer their knowledge through the employment of long-term expatriation practices. Expatriates’ ability to transfer knowledge may be increased through their involvement in short-term assignments, frequent flyers arrangements and international commuters practices. We test empirically the hypotheses on the basis of data from 92 subsidiaries of Danish MNCs located in 11 countries.

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