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Abstract

Purpose - The purpose of this paper is to discuss the phenomenon of knowledge transfer within multinational corporations (MNCs), and how the imperatives of thought and action that constitute new knowledge are received in the terrain that constitutes the MNC subsidiary.

Design/methodology/approach - This study employs an ethnographic approach, and juxtaposes primary data collection with a variety of secondary data sources.

Findings - The data are analyzed in light of the theoretical construct of hegemony, and three themes theorized that underlie the process of knowledge transfer. These include knowledge loss at the local level, the coercive practices that ensure knowledge transfer, and the invocation of imperial subjectivities by the headquarters of the MNC when dealing with subsidiaries from poorer nations.

Originality/value - This paper goes beyond the mainstream approaches into organizational knowledge transfer, by analyzing these issues in light of political economy, and the changing landscape of industrial accumulation. It offers in some measure, the building blocks of a different organizational theory, one that is sensitive to those subjects who are consigned to the periphery of mainstream organizing.

Publication Type:	Article
Additional Information:	This article is (c) Emerald Group Publishing and permission has been granted for this version to appear here http://openaccess.city.ac.uk/. Emerald does not grant permission for this article to be further copied/distributed or hosted elsewhere without the express permission from Emerald Group Publishing Limited.
Publisher Keywords:	Knowledge transfer, Multinational companies, Organizational theory
Subjects:	H Social Sciences > HD Industries. Land use. Labor Z Bibliography. Library Science. Information Resources > Z665 Library Science. Information Science
Departments:	Bayes Business School > Management
SWORD Depositor:	Symplectic Administrator

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