Agency-Based View of Learning within the Multinational Corporation

Abstract

Organizational learning within the international management field is commonly understood as knowledge transfer. Context-based and actor-centred investigations into the aspects of the social system that shape the learning process have received less attention. This study highlights the role of agency as embedded in MNC coordination networks where knowledge is distributed across a social system to account for non-isomorphic patterns of learning. It points to the social dimension of MNC learning by explicating actors' responses to acquired knowledge. The study is based on case studies that systematically compare the ways in which parent company knowledge diffuses to subsidiaries in the European chemical industry. It concludes that learning within multinational corporations is shaped by actors' orientation to drawing on the past, the present, and the future to inform their current practice beyond knowledge transfer.

Enriching Absorptive Capacity through Social Interaction

“…A related question therefore is how the wider cultural and institutional environment in turn shapes such organizational contingency factors. Finally, although social perspectives on MNE knowledge processes are still relatively scarce, such studies are on the rise (e.g., Hong et al, 2006a;Saka-Helmhout, 2009 Reagans andMcEvily, 2000: Szulanski, 1996), others see organizational learning as the antecedent (e.g., Schilling, 2002), and still others view the two concepts as having a recursive relationship (e.g., Cohen and Levinthal, 1990;Lane and Lubatkin, 1998;Tsai, 2001). In this paper, we concur with the (recursive) view that a subsidiary's capacity to acquire and utilize externally held knowledge is an antecedent to subsidiary learning, and in turn see subsidiaries' absorptive capacity as generated by "sociopsychological learning processes" (Sun and Anderson, 2010: 141) that are conditional on organizational conditions (Lane et al, 2006).…”

“…Finally, although social perspectives on MNE knowledge processes are still relatively scarce, such studies are on the rise (e.g. Hong, Easterby‐Smith and Snell, 2006; Saka‐Helmhout, 2009). As this study illustrated, by highlighting how local actors and local conditions affect learning at the organizational level, social learning perspectives may prove valuable in future studies to better understand the role of both local actors and organizational conditions in MNE knowledge processes.…”

Glocalizing Nonaka’s knowledge creation model: Issues and challenges

“…Failure to recognize areas of learning and knowledge that are susceptive to members’ distinct cultural values and assumptions will result in inter-cultural adjustment problems and misunderstandings. It is necessary to adopt a knowledge translation perspective (Czarniawska and Sevón, 1996), seeking to understand the non-isomorphic patterns of learning that individuals, acting as principal agents of learning (Czegledy, 1996; Saka-Helmhout, 2009), may adopt in responding to global ideas within a milieu of social and institutional influences in specific situations.…”

An Analysis of the Effectiveness of Understudy Programs: The Case of the Roads Authority Namibia

“…In a similar study, Hsu (2012, p.11) refers to "KT as the process of a systematically organized exchange of information and skills between entities". In addition, several studies (Kalling, 2003;Saka-Helmhout, 2009) came to define KT as a process through which employees in an organization learn from one another. Kunche et al (2011) suggest that using different methods of transferring skills can yield better results and lead to improved performance.…”