Research and Development Knowledge Transfer across National Cultures

Abstract

With the increased tendency of multinational corporations (MNCs) to disperse their research and development (R&D) activities over various countries, the integration of the dispersed R&D knowledge via knowledge transfer across cultural borders becomes crucial for understanding and managing MNCs. The chapter describes an investigation of knowledge transfer processes between R&D facilities of Akzo Nobel Car Refinishes (ANCR) in The Netherlands, the United States, and India. It inspects the barriers involved by hypothesizing and testing how specific scores on dimensions of national culture affect particular aspects of knowledge transfer. The main objective of the research is, via the situation of ANCR, to explore the information value and workability of linking culture and knowledge transfer as described previously. The research confirms the notion that cross-cultural knowledge transfer can be and very often is problematic, but it also provides that notion with a more positive outlook. The research shows that cultural differences are not just barriers to knowledge transfer, but may also provide a stimulus to learn from and with others in other cultures. Contrary to what is commonly suggested in the literature, the case study shows that cultural differences increase the difficulties of transferring explicit knowledge but the increase is smaller for those associated with the transfer of tacit knowledge.