Does Culture Really Matter? Cultural Influences on the Knowledge Transfer Process within Multinational Corporations

Transfer and imitation of the organizational capabilities are the twin elements of competition in innovative and growing markets. Knowledge therefore becomes an important strategic asset within organizations. Consequently the management of knowledge is considered with special attention. This paper focuses on the transfer of knowledge between to units of a multinational corporation. The premise of this paper is that successful transfer of knowledge is dependent on the dimensions of the context the transfer process faces. It first gives an overview on main influence factors during the knowledge transfer process between two company units, and then investigates the question whether cultural differences in the sender units influence the knowledge transfer process. The paper finally presents a model of culture related factors influencing the knowledge transfer process between two company units located in geographically different places