Knowledge transfer : a critical strategic asset in multinational firms : a corporate view

Abstract

This thesis examines the effectiveness of Knowledge Integration in a single multinational firm. Knowledge Integration is a concept that includes innovation, transfer and transformation of knowledge and much recent literature suggests that it is a key to competitive succcess, especia!!y within multinational organizations. The core of the thesis is a set of cases or descriptions of knowledge integration projects undertaken within the Beta corporation during the last 4 years. These descriptions were based on structured interviews within several managers within a single multinational company. The cases are then analyzed in order to determine possible causes and effects of the integration of knowledge across geographically dispersed units, with a primary goal of determining how the corporate role c.an contribute to knowledge integration during the development of projects. The framework fer analyzing these cases, based on the Kl literature, includes four different dimensions: Relations within the organizational structure, Organizational culture, Organizational environment, Resources & capabilities. The success of Kl in each project is related to each of these dimensions in order to determine whether its existence within corporate and the business units will produce better outcomes in the projects. Cross analysis of cases between the projects observed showed the patterns to emphasize in the framework of Knowledge Integration. The results of the analysis gave an interesting list of key task that corporate can perform to support Knowledge Integrations and obtain better outcomes in the projects. The ta.,k are: Provide infraestructure, Initiate the process, Structure the process, Motivate participants, Provide resources and Control progress.