Knowledge transfer among international telecom firms: Combining adaptation and replication.

This dissertation presents a study of knowledge transfer between source and receiving firms. I propose that organizational knowledge is linked to the environment so organizations will need to adapt knowledge as they transfer it to new settings. Current strategy and organizational research focuses exclusively on the ambiguous nature of knowledge in organizations and on the transfer mechanism of replication, which is the complete and exact copying of knowledge from one setting to another. I present a model of knowledge transfer in which adaptation and replication are separate transfer mechanisms that firms use together in the knowledge transfer process. The findings confirm that firms adapt knowledge to transfer it, thus knowledge depends crucially on the context in which it is applied. I find that adaptation and replication are separate mechanisms and each contributes to the amount of knowledge transfer. Both the receiving firm and the source firm contribute to knowledge transfer, and adaptation is higher in markets where the firms operate further from the technical frontier. I also confirm that knowledge transfer contributes to the performance of the receiving firm. This study extends our fundamental understanding of knowledge in two ways. First, it confirms that an organization's knowledge, embodied in its operating routines and information networks, is inextricably linked to the environment. The context dependent nature of knowledge forces us to acknowledge that environments shape, support, and infiltrate organizations {Scott, 1992 #202: 25}. Second, it suggests that organizations may know more than just what they can do. This study suggests that firms not only know what they do, but also understand how they do it. To adapt knowledge successfully, firms must understand how that knowledge interacts with other parts of the organization. If understanding is an important component of a firm's knowledge, however, then firms may possess some abstract knowledge. This represents a substantial expansion of our approach to organizational knowledge. The dissertation examines knowledge transfer in the context of the telecommunications industry, where technological advances have created strong demand for complementary organizational knowledge. I survey telecom firms with cross-border knowledge transfer relationships to test the hypotheses developed in this study.Ph.D.ManagementSocial SciencesUniversity of Michigan, Horace H. Rackham School of Graduate Studieshttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/123746/2/3096240.pd