Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in

Knowledge and Organization in the Theory of the Multinational Corporation: Some Foundational Issues

  • Published:
Journal of Management & Governance Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

This paper addresses the interaction of knowledge and organization in IB research, particularly research on the MNC. The argument is advanced that although the MNC literature is quite advanced with respect to its treatment of firm-level knowledge, several closely connected problems remain. In particular, there has been an over-emphasis on knowledge flows and an under-emphasis on knowledge stocks; the micro-foundations of MNC knowledge are unclear; and there is a no clear understanding of the causal relations between knowledge stocks and flows and organizational control. A control theory approach that may resolve some of these problems is then sketched.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Log in via an institution

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Institutional subscriptions

Similar content being viewed by others

References

  • C. Bartlett S. Ghoshal (1989) Managing Across Borders: The Transnational Solution Harvard Business School Press Boston

    Google Scholar 

  • J. Birkinshaw R. Nobel J. Ridderstråle (2002) ArticleTitle“Knowledge as a Contingency Variable: Do the Characteristics of Knowledge Predict Organization Structure?” Organization Science 13 274–290 Occurrence Handle10.1287/orsc.13.3.274.2778

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • P.J. Buckley (1990) ArticleTitle“Problems and Developments in the Core Theory of International Business” Journal of International Business Studies 19 657–665

    Google Scholar 

  • Buckley, P.J. and M. Casson: 1976, The Future of the Multinational Enterprise. Homes & Meier London

  • P.J. Buckley M. Casson (2001) “Strategic Complexity in International Business” A.M. Rugman T.L. Brewer (Eds) The Oxford Handbook of International Business Oxford University Press Oxford

    Google Scholar 

  • Y. Doz J. Santos P. Williamson (2001) From Global to Metanational: How Firms Win in the Knowledge Economy Harvard Business School Press New York

    Google Scholar 

  • T. Felin N. J. Foss (2005) ArticleTitle“Strategic Organization: a Field in Search of Microfoundations” Strategic Organization 3 441–455 Occurrence Handle10.1177/1476127005055796

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • N.J. Foss (1996) ArticleTitle“Knowledge-Based Approaches to the Theory of the Firm: Some Critical Comments” Organization Science 7 470–476

    Google Scholar 

  • N.J. Foss (2003) ArticleTitle“Bounded Rationality and Tacit Knowledge in the Organizational Capabilities Approach: An Evaluation and a Stocktaking” Industrial and Corporate Change 12 185–201 Occurrence Handle10.1093/icc/12.2.185

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • N. Foss T. Pedersen (2002) ArticleTitle“Sources of Subsidiary Knowledge and Organizational Means of Knowledge Transfer (with Torben Pedersen)” Journal of International Management 8 49–67 Occurrence Handle10.1016/S1075-4253(01)00054-0

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • L. Garicano (2000) ArticleTitle“Hieararchies and the Organization of Knowledge in Production” Journal of Political Economy 108 874–904 Occurrence Handle10.1086/317671

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • A. Grandori (2001) ArticleTitle“Neither Hierarchy nor Identity: Knowledge Governance Mechanisms and the Theory of the Firm” Journal of Management and Governance 5 381–399

    Google Scholar 

  • A. Grandori B. Kogut (2002) ArticleTitle“Dialogue on Organization and Knowledge” Organization Science 13 224–232 Occurrence Handle10.1287/orsc.13.3.224.2774

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • R.M. Grant (1996) ArticleTitle“Toward a Knowledge-based Theory of the Firm''” Strategic Management Journal 17 109–122

    Google Scholar 

  • A.K. Gupta V. Govindarajan (2000) ArticleTitle“Knowledge Flows Within Multinational Corporations” Strategic Management Journal 21 473–496 Occurrence Handle10.1002/(SICI)1097-0266(200004)21:4<473::AID-SMJ84>3.0.CO;2-I

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • G. Hedlund (1986) ArticleTitle“The Hypermodern MNC – A Heterarchy?” Human Resource Management 1 9–35

    Google Scholar 

  • B. Holmström J. Roberts (1998) ArticleTitle“The Boundaries of the Firm Revisited” Journal of Economic Perspectives 12 73–94

    Google Scholar 

  • B. Kogut U. Zander (1992) ArticleTitle“Knowledge of the Firm, Combinative Capabilities, and the Replication of Technology” Organization Science 3 383–397

    Google Scholar 

  • B. Kogut U. Zander (1993) ArticleTitle“Knowledge of the Firm and the Evolutionary Theory of the Multinational Corporation” Journal of International Business Studies 24 625–645

    Google Scholar 

  • R.N. Langlois (1992) ArticleTitle“Transaction-Cost Economics in Real Time''” Industrial and Corporate Change 1 99–127

    Google Scholar 

  • B. Levitt J.G. March (1988) ArticleTitle“Organizational Learning” Annual Review of Sociology 14 319–340 Occurrence Handle10.1146/annurev.so.14.080188.001535

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • M.A. Lyles C.R. Schwenk (1992) ArticleTitle“Top Management, Strategy, and Organizational Knowledge Structures” Journal of Management Studies 29 155–174

    Google Scholar 

  • J. Nickerson T. Zenger (2004) ArticleTitle“A Knowledge-based Theory of the Firm: the Problem-Solving Perspective” Organization Science 15 617–632 Occurrence Handle10.1287/orsc.1040.0093

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • J. Oxley R. Sampson (2004) ArticleTitle“The Scope and Governance of International R&D Alliances” Strategic Management Journal 25 723–749 Occurrence Handle10.1002/smj.391

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • E.T. Penrose (1959) The Theory of the Growth of the Firm Oxford University Press Oxford

    Google Scholar 

  • L.S. Pontryagin V.G. Boltyanskii R.V. Gamkrelidze E.F. Mischenko (1962) The Mathematical Theory of Optimal Processes Interscience New York

    Google Scholar 

  • M.E. Porter (1994) Toward a Dynamic Theory of Strategy R. Rumelt D. Schendel D. Teece (Eds) Fundamental Issues in Strategy: a Research Agenda Harvard Business School Press Boston

    Google Scholar 

  • Postrel, S.: 2003, “Resources and Capabilities as Constraint”, Paper for the Academy of Management Meetings, Seattle, 1–8 August, 2003

  • P. Rubin (1973) ArticleTitle“The Expansion of Firms” Journal of Political Economy 81 936–949

    Google Scholar 

  • M.D. Singh Y. Doz (1983) ArticleTitle“A Dynamic Model of the Headquarters-Subsidiary Relation in MNCs” International Journal of Systems Science 14 1129–1138

    Google Scholar 

  • J.C. Spender (1996) ArticleTitle“Making Knowledge the basis of a Dynamic Theory of the Firm” Strategic Management Journal 17 45–62

    Google Scholar 

  • G. Szulanski (1996) ArticleTitle“Exploring Internal Stickiness: Impediments to the Transfer of Best Practice Within the Firm” Strategic Management Journal 17(Winter Special Issue) 27–43

    Google Scholar 

  • S. Tallman (2003) ArticleTitle“The significance of Bruce Kogut’s and Udo Zander’s article, Knowledge of the Firm and the Evolutionary Theory of the Multinational Corporation” Journal of International Business Studies 34 495–497 Occurrence Handle10.1057/palgrave.jibs.8400061

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • A. Vining (2003) ArticleTitle“Internal Market Failure: A Framework for Diagnosing Firm Inefficiency” Journal of Management Studies 40 431–457

    Google Scholar 

  • O.E. Williamson (1999) ArticleTitle“Strategy Research: Governance and Competence Perspectives” Strategic Management Journal 20 1087–1108 Occurrence Handle10.1002/(SICI)1097-0266(199912)20:12<1087::AID-SMJ71>3.0.CO;2-Z

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • S.G. Winter (1987) Knowledge and Competence as Strategic Assets D.J. Teece (Eds) The Competitive Challenge Ballinger Publ. Co Cambridge, MA

    Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Center for Strategic Management and Globalization, Porcelainshaven 24, 2nd fl, 2000, Frederiksberg, Denmark

    Nicolai J. Foss

Authors
  1. Nicolai J. Foss
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Nicolai J. Foss.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Cite this article

Foss, N.J. Knowledge and Organization in the Theory of the Multinational Corporation: Some Foundational Issues. J Manage Governance 10, 3–20 (2006). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10997-005-3545-8

Download citation

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10997-005-3545-8

Keywords

Search

Navigation