Organizational Behavior and Theory Commons^™

Knowledge Transfer Between Expatriates And Host Country Nationals: A Social Capital Perspective, Yu-Shan Hsu

Theses and Dissertations

One of the competitive advantages of multinational corporations (MNCs) is to successfully transfer knowledge among geographically dispersed and diverse locations (de Pablos, 2006; Kogut & Zander, 1993). During the process of knowledge transfer in MNCs, expatriates and host country nationals (HCNs) serve as boundary spanners, meaning that they generally serve as bridges for the transference of knowledge. However, because it might be more difficult for expatriates and HCNs to form positive relationships as they are from different cultural backgrounds, the transfer of knowledge may be impeded. This raises an intriguing question: How can expatriates and HCNs overcome the differences inherent …