Orchestration of globally distributed knowledge within multinational companies network: A collaborative‐oriented view

• Published date: 01 January 2019
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.1002/kpm.1596
• Date: 01 January 2019
• Author: Peder Veng Søberg,Solmaz Sajadirad,Astrid Heidemann Lassen

CASE STUDY

Orchestration of globally distributed knowledge within

multinational companies network: A collaborative‐oriented view

Solmaz Sajadirad |Astrid Heidemann Lassen |Peder Veng Søberg

Center for Industrial Production, Department

of Materials and Production, Aalborg

University, Aalborg, Denmark

Correspondence

Solmaz Sajadirad, Center for Industrial

Production, Department of Materials and

Production, Aalborg University, Alborg 9100,

Denmark.

Email: sadjadirad@gmail.com

This paper explores how the use of interfirm objects within different knowledge

orchestration processes affects collaboration between headquarter and distributed

subsidiaries. The discussion focuses on different approaches to knowledge orchestra-

tion based on combinations of the use of interfirm objects and the characteristics of

knowledge orchestration processes. To this end, a conceptual framework is applied

to 11 case studies from Danish industries.

The findings suggest that adopting a collaborative‐oriented view of the use of interfirm

objects facilitates orchestration of globally distributed knowledge in multinational com-

panies. The findings also indicate that adoption of different knowledge orchestration

approaches by companies can be influenced by headquarter–subsidiaries relationship,

type of products, knowledge relevance between headquarter and subsidiaries, and level

of headquarters' control over knowledge flow and subsidiaries' operation. Additionally,

our findings propose that different approaches to knowledge orchestration can result in

different degrees of innovation performance.

This study extends existing literature on global knowledge management by focusing

exclusively on knowledge orchestration in multinational companies. By introducing a

dynamic view of the use of interfirm objects, facilitating collaboration between

headquarters and subsidiaries, our findings would help multinational companies

improve headquarter–subsidiaries relationship in favor of the efficiency and effective-

ness of globally distributed network.

1|INTRODUCTION

Multinational companies (MNCs), as “knowledge‐based entities”(Foss

& Pedersen, 2004), have increasingly distributed their operations to

subsidiaries all around the world (Mudambi, Mudambi, & Navarra,

2007). Nevertheless, “the evolution of both global economic integration

and local institutional contexts made the operating role less of a

differentiator and in many MNCs innovation concerns came to prevail,

in practice, over operational ones”(Doz, 2016). In line with this trend,

extant studies emphasize that distributed subsidiaries play an increas-

ingly important role in MNCs' innovations (Phene & Almeida, 2008).

Contrary to earlier studies on knowledge transfer within MNCs

assuming that learning and the flow of knowledge is a one‐way

process from headquarter (HQ) to subsidiaries (Porter, 1990; Vernon,

1966), more recent studies also point to the importance of knowledge

flow from subsidiaries to HQ (Mudambi, Piscitello, & Rabbiosi, 2014;

Nielsen & Michailova, 2007; Piscitello & Rabbiosi, 2004; Søberg &

Wæhrens, 2013). Moreover, studies on international management

underpin how the roles of subsidiaries have changed from being

merely the receivers of knowledge to becoming knowledge generators

for the rest of the MNCs' network (Bartlett & Goshal, 1989; Gupta &

Govindarajan, 1991; Piscitello & Rabbiosi, 2004). According to Von

Krogh and Venzin (1996) in Seufert, von Krogh, and et Bach (1999),

“the key to obtaining long‐term competitive advantage is not to be

found in the administration of existing knowledge, but in the ability

to constantly generate new knowledge, and to move on to new prod-

ucts and services.”Subsidiaries can play the competence creators role

in which they introduce the novel, unique, and useful knowledge,

Received: 12 January 2017 Accepted: 20 January 2019

DOI: 10.1002/kpm.1596

Knowl Process Manag. 2019;26:51–65. © 2019 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.wileyonlinelibrary.com/journal/kpm 51