International Transfer of Knowledge in Multinational Enterprises. The Role of International Human Resource Management in Transferring Tacit Knowledge Across Borders (PDF)

Diploma Thesis from the year 2001 in the subject Business economics - Business Management, Corporate Governance, grade: 1.0 (A), European University Viadrina Frankfurt (Oder) (FB BWL), language: English, abstract: In the world of today, business is no longer limited by national boundaries. The majority of the
world's large corporations perform a significant portion of their activities outside their home
countries. The rapidly emerging global economy creates numerous opportunities for businesses to
expand their revenues, drive down their costs and boost their profits. At the same time, markets
have become fierce battlegrounds where firms have to fight aggressively for market share with
domestic and foreign competitors. It is commonly accepted that one of the primary sources for
competitive advantage of multinational enterprises (MNEs) in this globalized business environment
is their ability to transfer superior knowledge at the international level1 and to create a "learning
organization"2. To succeed, or at least survive, in the global market-place, organizations need to
adapt quickly to the changing environment and must commit themselves to permanent learning.
This paper presents a general overview of the process of international knowledge transfer within
multinational enterprises. It deals with the problems of organizational knowledge creation and
sharing. A particular emphasis is placed on the implications for international human resource
management practices in managing the international transfer of employees, since global
assignments are recognized hierin as the most important mechanism of transferring tacit knowledge3
across borders. As the sharing of easily codifiable knowledge is relatively easy to manage, the
means of transferring it are not focused on in this study. [...]

1 See, for instance, Kogut, B. and Zander, U. (1992): "Knowledge of the Firm, Combinative Capabilities, and the
Replication of Technology", Organizational Science, Vol. 3, No. 3, pp. 383-397; Kogut, B. and Zander, U. (1993):
"Knowledge of the Firm and the Evolutionary Theory of the Multinational Corporation", Journal of International
Business Studies, Vol. 24, pp. 625-645; Björkman, I. and Forsgren, M. (1997): "The Nature of the International Firm.
Nordic Contributions to International Business Research", Handelshojskolens Forlag, p. 71.
2 See, for instance, Garvin, D.A. (1993): "Building a Learning Organization", Harvard Business Review, July/August,
pp. 78-91. For definition of the learning organization see p. 23.
3 For definition of the tacit knowledge see p. 22.