다국적기업의 본사-자회사간 조직내 지식이전과 흡수역량에 관한 연구 = A Study on Intra-organizational Knowledge Flows and Absorptive Capacity between MNEs` Headquarter and Subsidiary

다국어 초록 (Multilingual Abstract)

Although there has been much research on knowledge management and knowledge transfer, most literatures have been focused on issues related to the knowledge transfer process between partners within the context of strategic alliance or joint venture, but issue within an intra-MNE knowledge transfer has respectively received little attention Furthermore previous studies related to type of knowledge have been dominated by research on R&D, new product development (NPD), and marketing, but rarely on issues related to business know-how. This study empirically tried to find the issue as to what factors facilitate effectiveness of knowledge transfer to subsidiary. In order to address these research questions, this study explores both theoretically and empirically determinants of cross-border knowledge transfer from Korean multinational enterprises` parent to subsidiaries in a variety of foreign markets. Moreover, this study additionally explored the phenomena that a moderating effect between the levels of high and low of absorptive capabilities subsidiaries have in foreign markets. Based on a survey of the Korean subsidiaries located in overseas, cultural distance and psychic distance between headquarters and its subsidiaries evidently decrease the transferability of business know-how. In addition, the extent of autonomy of subsidiary significantly affects effectiveness of transfer of business know-how with a negative sign. On the other hand, a higher transferability of business know-how to subsidiaries occurs when the degree of organizational learning culture, commitment, and prior experience of the headquarters are higher. This study also sequentially verified that moderating effect of absorptive capabilities. As a result, this study demonstrated subsidiaries must have the capabilities to absorb inputs in order to generate output and without such a capacity, they cannot absorb, interpret, understand, and utilize the transferred knowledge of business know-how from headquarters.