Balancing global and local strategic contexts: Expatriate knowledge transfer, applications, and learning within a transnational organization

Abstract

We investigate how expatriates contribute to the transnational firm's strategic objectives of global efficiency, national (”local”) responsiveness, and worldwide learning. We focus on expatriate knowledge application and experiential learning achievements, two assignment‐based outcomes of potential strategic value to the firm. We assess how the individual's everyday knowledge access and communication activities, measured by frequency and geographic extent, affect these assignment outcomes. Within our case organization, a prototype transnational firm, we find that expatriate knowledge applications result from frequent knowledge access and communication with the corporate headquarters and other global units of the firm. In contrast, their experiential learning derives from frequent access to hostcountry (local) knowledge that subsequently is adapted to the global corporate context. From a practical perspective, we conclude that experiential learning is an invaluable resource for both present and future corporate assignments. © 2007 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

Repatriate Knowledge Transfer: Towards the Development of a New Measurement Instrument

“…According to Berthoin Antal (2000: 36) procedural knowledge "has a significant tacit dimension", in that procedural knowledge means to have the skills to do something, and is usually acquired during social interaction with the knowledge holder (Nonaka & Takeuchi, 1995). Therefore, this aspect of the current findings supports previous research results that had highlighted the tacit dimension of repatriate knowledge (Hocking, Brown, & Harzing, 2007;Lazarova & Tarique, 2005;Oddou et al, 2009;Stahl, Chua, Caligiuri, Cerdin, & Taniguchi, 2009). …”

Why do international assignees stay? An organizational embeddedness perspective

“…Whereas international assignments have long been regarded as a key mechanism for MNCs to develop international competencies among its staff (Furuya et al, 2009;Gregersen et al, 1998) and diffuse firm-specific knowledge across MNC units (Hocking, Brown, & Harzing, 2007;Reiche et al, 2009), few studies have examined how such knowledge and expertise is acquired by the individual assignee. In this vein, our study investigates two specific antecedents --links with host-unit staff and fit with the host unit --that may relate to assignees' acquisition of firm-specific knowledge.…”

Les modes de coordination comme analyseurs des relations siège-filiales : une étude de dix firmes multinationales françaises

“…Ils sont proches des modes de contrôle de Harzing (1999) repris dans Hocking et al (2007) : contrôle personnel centralisé, contrôle bureaucratique formalisé et contrôle par les résultats. Ces modes de coordination reposent sur les méca-nismes de coordination formels qui regroupent la départementalisation des unités, la décentralisation de la prise de décision, la formalisation et standardisation, la planification, et le contrôle du résultat et du comportement.…”

“…Il s'agit de créer une adhésion aux valeurs partagées de l'organisation (Nohria et Ghoshal, 1994). Les questions de la sélection du personnel et de la place de l'expatriation sont notamment posées (Edström et Galbraith, 1977;Baliga et Jaeger, 1984;Harzing, 1999;Hocking et al, 2007).…”