The Tacit Knowledge Problem in Multinational Corporations: Japanese and US Offshore Knowledge Incubators
Year: 2008
Type: report
Abstract: This paper examines the ‘cognitive’ and ‘societal’ aspects of the tacit knowledge transfer problem in MNCs. Based on a comparative analysis of the overseas R&D labs of US and Japanese MNCs in the UK, it examines how home-based models of learning influence MNCs’ transnational social spaces for learning and their capabilities to address the tacit knowing problem. It illustrates how the US professional ‘networks of practice’ (NOP) and the Japanese organizational ‘communities of practice’ (COP) approaches to transnational learning unfold in practice. It also examines how divergence between home and host country institutions governing knowledge production inhibits cross-societal tacit knowing.
DOI: 10.2139/ssrn.1869909
Author: Alice Lam
Institutions: University of London, Royal Holloway University of London
Language: English
Subfield: Information Systems and Management
Field: Decision Sciences
Domain: Social Sciences
Open Access status: green
Funder: European Commission
OpenAlex ID: W2138176579