The Tacit Knowledge Problem in Multinational Corporations: Japanese and US Offshore Knowledge Incubators

Alice Lam

MPRA Paper from University Library of Munich, Germany

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.

Keywords: comparative thinking; tacit knowledge; knowledge transfer in MNCs; innovation and R&D; organizational learning; communities of practice (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: F23 O32 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2008-08
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-knm
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:pra:mprapa:11487

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