Knowledge and strategy creation in multinational companies: social-identity frames and temporary tension in knowledge combination

Citation

(2012), "Knowledge and strategy creation in multinational companies: social-identity frames and temporary tension in knowledge combination", Strategic Direction, Vol. 28 No. 5. https://doi.org/10.1108/sd.2012.05628eaa.005

Knowledge and strategy creation in multinational companies: social-identity frames and temporary tension in knowledge combination

Article type: Abstracts From: Strategic Direction, Volume 28, Issue 5

Regnér P. and Zander U. Management International Review, 2011, Volume: 51 Issue: 6, Start page: 821, No. of pages: 30

While a great deal of research on international business and management has fruitfully focused on knowledge transfer, this paper investigates knowledge creation; the process by which multinational companies (MNCs) continuously combine and recombine knowledge in order to generate a competitive advantage. By integrating contemporary strategic management research into the field of international business, we have developed a new perspective on strategy and knowledge creation in MNCs, by elaborating on and extending the knowledge-based view and other views of MNC strategy making. We suggest that the agglomeration of a multitude of diverse social-identity frames, nested inside a corporate centripetal frame, creates an arena in which exploitable new knowledge can be created. We propose that while a common corporate social-identity frame promotes knowledge transfer, the diversity of various subgroups’ social-identity frames, in combination, with interaction and temporary tension between them, advances knowledge creation. Although this partly involves a serendipitous process, it promotes a systemic advantage for MNCs compared to local firms, as regards knowledge exploration, (re-)combination, and integration. This competitive advantage is firmly rooted in hard-to-imitate complex social processes and may therefore be sustainable. Article type: Research paper ISSN: 0938-8249 Reference: 41AC216

Keywords: Knowledge creation, Multinationals, Social identity frames, Strategy