The failure case of the knowledge transfer in an international joint venture : focusing on car engine control system (국제 합작회사의 지식이전 실패사례 연구: 자동차 엔진제어시스템 기술을 중심으로)
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- Journal of Technology Innovation
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- v.29 no.2
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- pp.1-30
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- 2021
Recent years have witnessed various attempts of firms to acquire new knowledge. Purchasing intellectual property or merger and acquisition (M&A) can be such attempts, but joint venture can also be an effective way internalizing new complementary assets from external partners. However, due to difficulties in the formation and implementation of learning strategies, many joint ventures have failed to acquire necessary knowledge. In this respect, based on contingency theory and dynamic capability, the current research aims to investigate the failure case of knowledge transfer in an international joint venture - KEFICO established by Hyundai motors and BOSCH. Case firm optimized for hardware technology but did not establish a differentiated learning strategy and organizational structure to acquire software skills, which are intellectuals of different natures. Due to this inconsistency, it was not able for KEFICO to absorb new type of knowledge (skills related to engine control system). This study suggests the theoretical framework illustrating the case and provides some important implications for organizational learning.
Research on reverse knowledge transfer from subsidiaries to headquarters is recently gaining prominence. The debate regarding the precedents affecting the phenomenon has yet to reach a consensus. Therefore, this paper attempts to identify the effects of an organization's subsidiaries' knowledge transfer capacity (KTC) on reversely transferred local market information (LMI) to headquarters. The present study also examines the moderating effect of intrinsic KTC on the relationship between extrinsic KTC and RKT in an effort to gain better insights into KTC. Through sample data gathered from South Korea, knowledge development capability and subsidiary willingness were found to be vital precedents for successful reverse transferring of LMI to headquarters. Furthermore, we also found that subsidiary willingness functions as an interfering moderator between the relationship of knowledge development capability and RKT. Theoretical contributions and practical implications of these findings are discussed.
This research focuses on what factors determine firm's decisions on R&D outsourcing and how R&D outsourcing affect R&D performance. In recent years many firms outsource R&D activities instead of internalizing it. Thus, further investigation is necessary to find out this recent trend. Based on several theoretical background the study developed three determining factors of R&D outsourcing which are transactional level, firm level, and risk level. Transactional level composes of independent variables such as R&D cost saving, asset specificity and uncertainty which mainly comes from Transaction Cost Economics theory. Firm level composes of openness to technology from outer source, R&D capability, and outsourcing experience. Risk level composes of technological risk, cost-related risk and managerial risk. The result shows that R&D outsourcing is significantly related to cost saving aspect, low asset specific firms, firms without solid technological background, firms which are open to external technology, firms with other types of outsourcing experience, and firms which take technological risks. However, proposed relationship between degree of R&D outsourcing and R&D performance found out to be insignificant. This research is contribute to the field of outsourcing study since it will give guidance to managers who need to make strategic decisions on R&D outsourcing activities.
Knowledge1 is considered to be a key element of understanding how organizations gain and sustain competitive advantages. But very few firms are capable of creating the requisite knowledge and thus, firms should acquire and exploit new knowledge through knowledge transfer processes. The empirical part of this study involves examining relationships among adaptability of knowledge and knowledge transfer and marketing performance and testing the moderating roles of absorptive capacity, socialization and local marketing knowledge. This study is organized as follows: (1) Previous literature on knowledge, knowledge transfer and absorptive capacity is summarized, followed by the development of hypotheses derived from the knowledge-based view and absorptive capacity. (2) The hypotheses are tested with data collected from MNCs' subsidiaries performing marketing activities in Korea.Thestudyisclosedwithfindings,implications,andconclusions. Following six research hypotheses are drawn from literature review in related areas: H1: Adaptability of knowledge transferred from the MNCs' headquarters and other subsidiaries is positively associated with knowledge inflows into the receiving subsidiary. H2: The level of marketing knowledge transferred from the MNCs' headquarters and other subsidiaries is positively associated with marketing performance of the receiving subsidiary. H3: Increases in potential absorptive capacity will enhance the relationship between adaptability of knowledge and the level of marketing knowledge transfer. H4: Increases in realized absorptive capacity will enhance the relationship between the level of knowledge transfer and marketing performance of the receiving subsidiary. H5: Increases in socialization activity among the headquarters and subsidiaries will enhance the relationship between adaptability of knowledge and the level of marketing knowledge transfer. H6: Increases in the level of locally developed marketing knowledge will enhance the relationship between the level of knowledge transfer and marketing performance of the receiving subsidiary. The research framework that illustrates the proposed hypotheses is presented in figure 1. The unit of analysis for this study is knowledge transfer from the MNCs' headquarters and other subsidiaries to their subsidiaries operating in South Korea. The population for this study consists of subsidiaries established either as joint ventures or as wholly-owned subsidiaries. A group of 603 foreign firms were drawn from diverse industry organizations and business societies. After personal contact, telephone, fax, and e-mail to request that the respondents complete the questionnaire, 282 valid questionnaires from 133 initial sample companies were collected. The results of the empirical analyses significantly support all of the proposed hypotheses except hypothesis 3. Adaptability of external knowledge promotes knowledge transfer and the relationship is moderated by a firm's potential knowledge absorptive capacity. On the other hand, knowledge transfer improves a firm's marketing performance and a firm's realized knowledge absorptive capacity and local marketing knowledge moderate the relationship. The theoretical and practical implications of the findings in this study are as follows: (1) firms must take seeking, transferring, sharing and exploiting of external knowledge into serious consideration, while simultaneously creating knowledge to support the necessary business operations, remain competitive, and achieve superior performance. (2) Firms should continuously seek to develop their knowledge absorptive capacity (both potential and realized capacity) to absorb, learn and utilize valuable external knowledge. (3) Firms should emphasize not only absorptive capacity, but also development of local knowledge. Firms with strong absorptive capability and local knowledge can learn and transfer more external knowledge, which can be translated into greater levels of competence and performance.
Franchising is one of the fastest growing types of business. It is already popular and well-known in the U.S., and has been growing in many other countries including Korea. Furthermore, many Korean franchising companies have expanded their business overseas actively. According to the data by the Ministry of Industry and Resource, 82 companies out of a sample of 500 franchising companies are already operating in many foreign countries and 48% of them have started their foreign business since 2006. This clearly indicates the fast growing current trend of foreign operation by Korean franchising companies. In spite of the fast growing trend of foreign expansion in the industry, academic research on internationalization of franchising companies is extremely difficult to find. Accordingly, academic research on the issue is necessary and urgent in Korea. Among the various research questions on internationalization of franchising business, this study intends to investigate the difference in organizational factors between the franchising companies doing foreign operation and those doing business only domestically. More specifically, this research has the following purposes. First, considering the lack of theoretical basis of previous studies, resource-based theory and agency theory are employed as the theoretical bases. Second, this study explains the difference in internationalization based on organizational factors such as company size, history and growth rate. Third, the five hypotheses regarding the difference in organizational factors are presented and tested empirically, which is the first attempt in the area of this topic. Finally, the study attempts to clarify the conflicting implications among theories regarding some organizational factos such as growth rate. As the theoretical background, resource-based theory and agency theory are discussed. According to resource-based theory, a firm can grow continuously when it has competence and resource, and also the ability to develop them. The competence and resource can include capital, human resource, management skill, market information, ability to manage risk, etc. Meanwhile, agency theory views the relationship between franchisor and franchisee as an agency relationship. In agency theory, bonding capability and monitoring capability are the two key factors which promote internationalization of franchising companies. Based on the two theories, a conceptual model is designed. The model consists of two groups of variables. One is organizational factors including size, history, growth rate, price bonding and geographic dispersion. The other is whether a franchising company is operating overseas or not. We developed the following five research hypotheses basically describing the relationship between organizational factors and internationalization of franchising companies. H1: The size of franchising companies operating overseas is larger than that of franchising companies operating domestically. H2: The history of franchising companies operating overseas is longer than that of franchising companies operating domestically. H3: The growth rate of franchising companies operating overseas is higher than that of franchising companies operating domestically. H4: The price bonding of franchising companies operating overseas is higher than that of franchising companies operating domestically. H5: The geographic dispersion of franchising companies operating overseas is wider than that of franchising companies operating domestically. Data for the analyses are obtained from 2005 Korea Franchise Survey data co-generated by Ministry of Industry and Resource, GS1 Korea, and Korea Franchise Association. Out of 2,804 population companies, 2,489 companies are excluded for various reasons and 315 companies are selected as the final sample. Prior to hypotheses tests, validity and reliability of the measures of size, history, growth rate and price bonding are examined for further analyses. Geographic dispersion is not validated since it is measured using nominal data. A series of independent sample T-tests is used to find out whether there exists any significant difference between the companies internationalized and those operating only domestically for each organizational factor. Among the five factors, size and geographic dispersion show significant difference, growth rate and price bonding do not reveal any difference and, finally, history factor shows conflicting results in the difference depending on how to measure it.