How does successive inpatriation contribute to subsidiary capability building and subsidiary evolution? An organizational knowledge creation perspective

Intra-company knowledge transfer is a key source of competitive advantage for multinational companies (MNCs) and this knowledge is usually embedded in individuals. Drawing on organizational knowledge creation theory, we explore how inpatriation contributes to knowledge transfer and, in turn, subsidiary performance. Inpatriation involves the international assignment of employees from an MNC’s foreign subsidiary to its headquarters. Despite increasing attention to the role of inpatriation, we lack a clear understanding of whether and how inpatriates provide value to their subsidiaries after returning from headquarters. Through a qualitative case study of Japanese MNCs, we demonstrate the process through which inpatriates’ knowledge transfer contributes to subsidiary capability building and subsidiary evolution over time, and explain why successive inpatriation is thus critical to enhance subsidiary performance. Our theoretical model highlights the value of inpatriates as knowledge agents, reveals the process through which inpatriates transfer knowledge between HQ and subsidiaries, and provides a more nuanced understanding of the micro-foundations of intra-MNC knowledge transfer processes. Based on these findings, we argue that inpatriation is not merely a staffing method that is complementary to expatriation, but a key practice in its own right to support subsidiaries’ growth and performance.

Modeling and Analysis of Interorganizational Knowledge Transfer Considering Reputation Mechanisms

Transferring a quantity of credible knowledge is a key sustainable competitive advantage for multi-agent cooperation in an interorganizational network (ION). This study presents simulation research to identify the impacts of reputation mechanisms in interorganizational knowledge transfer through systematic evolutionary game theory, addressing the sustainability of knowledge transfer behaviors in innovation, R&D, and low green carbon. The simulation results showed that an agent’s reputation provides information about having valuable knowledge, which can reduce some of the opportunistic behaviors of knowledge transfer faced by knowledge agents. Regardless of its form, we found that reputation distribution significantly promotes interorganizational knowledge transfer behaviors. In addition, higher reputation thresholds and more significant differences in the impact of high and low reputations prominently contribute to knowledge transfer efficiency and effectiveness. The relationship between reputation mechanisms and the efficiency and effectiveness of knowledge transfer is examined. This study sheds light on the sustainable management of interorganizational projects from reputation mechanisms.

Ensino de Biotecnologia para Estudantes no Ensino Fundamental em uma Escola Pública no Sul do Amazonas

ResumoA Biotecnologia é considerada uma ciência multidisciplinar, e usa seres vivos a partir da aplicação de técnicas, ferramentas ou procedimento com auxílio de novas tecnologias para fabricação de bens de consumo ou serviços. Objetivou-se propor instrumento metodológico para abordar a Biotecnologia e elucidar um campo de discursão teórico/prático desta ciência, considerando a percepção dos estudantes. Esta pesquisa foi desenvolvida em uma escola pública na cidade de Humaitá- AM. Foram selecionadas, de forma aleatória, duas turmas do Ensino Fundamental. Utilizou-se pesquisa de caráter bibliográfico, pesquisa ação com abordagem qualitativa e quantitativa com referência ao método Materialismo Histórico e Dialético, as técnicas de coletas de dados utilizadas foram: diagramas de fluxo do pensamento pré e pós-atividades da pesquisa e construção de atividade didática. Os resultados apontam que os diagramas expressaram a verdade pelos sujeitos, em um paralelo inicial e final da abordagem sobre Biotecnologia. Além disso, por meio da abordagem de conteúdo, os estudantes puderam se apropriar de informações sobre o processo de produção, as vantagens, as desvantagens, as curiosidades e as demais informações pertinentes sobre Biotecnologia. Por este motivo, esta pesquisa demonstrou que é possível propor metodologia de simples execução para ensinar Biotecnologia dentro das possibilidades do professor e aluno, no cenário atual de evolução tecnológica, e uso de organismos biológicos para melhorar a condição da vida do homem. Portanto, espera-se que outros agentes de conhecimento adotem métodos similares para aproximar o estudante da Biotecnologia, em uma perspectiva positiva de mundo, considerada a ciência do século. Palavras-chave: Tecnologia. Organismos Biológicos. Abordagem. AbstractBiotechnology is considered a multidisciplinary science, and uses living beings from the application of techniques, tools or procedures with the aid of new technologies for the manufacture of consumer goods or services. The objective was to propose a methodological instrument to approach Biotechnology and to elucidate a field of theoretical / practical discourse on this science considering the students' perception. This research was developed in a public school in the city of Humaitá-AM. Two classes of elementary school were selected at random. Bibliographic research was used, action research with a qualitative and quantitative approach with reference to the Historical and Dialectical Materialism method, the data collection techniques used were: Pre- and post-thought flow research diagrams and didactic activity construction . The results show that the diagrams expressed the truth by the subjects in an initial and final parallel of the approach on Biotechnology. In addition, through the content approach, the students were able to appropriate information about the production process, the advantages, disadvantages, curiosities and other pertinent information about Biotechnology. For this reason, this research has shown that it is possible to propose a simple execution methodology to teach Biotechnology within the possibilities of the teacher and student in the current scenario of technological evolution and use of biological organisms to improve the man's life condition. Therefore, it is expected that other knowledge agents adopt similar methods to bring the student closer to Biotechnology, in a positive perspective of the world, considered the science of the century. Keywords: Technology. Biological Organisms. Approach.

Nominal Conceptualism and Logical Modelling of Agents’ Conceptions

In the view of my philosophical position ‘nominal conceptualism’, cognitive/knowledge agents, who are in some way aware of expressing the world based on their mental concepts, deal with their linguistic and/or symbolic expressions. In this paper I rely on nominal concep- tualism to logically characterise agents’ concept-based descriptions of the world and analyse a undamental logical system for conception representation.

Innovation Behavior of Salvadoran Food & Beverage Industry Firms

This paper presents a quantitative analysis of the external and internal determinants that affect the innovation dynamics of a low-tech sector in a less developed economy; the food & beverage (F&B) industry in El Salvador. The empirical framework relies on a multivariate probit analysis applied to data from El Salvador’s First National Innovation Survey 2013. The results show that R&D activities, use of industrial protection by F&B industry firms as well as relationships between firms and knowledge agents are useful for technological innovations while the qualifications of firms’ workforce and the relationships between firms and value chain agents prove useful for non-technological innovations. In addition, firms can take advantage of their size and location in the department of San Salvador to promote product innovation, whereas firms’ maturity is seen to be a disadvantage. Based on the results to emerge, the role that public science, technology and innovation (STI) policies as well as STI business strategies can play in the Salvadoran agri-food industry innovation system is seen to be huge.

Innovation Behavior of Salvadoran Food & Beverage Industry Firms

This paper presents a quantitative analysis of the external and internal determinants that affect the innovation dynamics of a low-tech sector in a less developed economy; the food & beverage (F&B) industry in El Salvador. The empirical framework relies on a multivariate probit analysis applied to data from El Salvador’s First National Innovation Survey 2013. The results show that R&D activities, use of industrial protection by F&B industry firms as well as relationships between firms and knowledge agents are useful for technological innovations while the qualifications of firms’ workforce and the relationships between firms and value chain agents prove useful for non-technological innovations. In addition, firms can take advantage of their size and location in the department of San Salvador to promote product innovation, whereas firms’ maturity is seen to be a disadvantage. Based on the results to emerge, the role that public science, technology and innovation (STI) policies as well as STI business strategies can play in the Salvadoran agri-food industry innovation system is seen to be huge.

Social Facilitators of Specialist Knowledge Dispersion in the Digital Era

The digital revolution has triggered disproportions resulting from unequal access to knowledge and various related skills, because the constituting new civilization is based on specific, high-context, and personalized professional knowledge. In response to these dependencies, and in line with the sustainability paradigm, the issue of diffusion of knowledge, especially of the professional type, is of particular importance in eliminating the increasing digital inequalities. Therefore, the main challenge is to stimulate the free dispersion of intellectual workers’ knowledge. Their openness and commitment, devoid of opportunistic and knowledge-flow restraining attitudes, are prerequisites for the development of a sustainable society (synonymous with Civilization 5.0 or Humanity 5.0). The article endeavors to verify trust as the leading factor of effective specialist knowledge exchange. Its purpose is to analyze and diagnose the components, enablers, and types of trust that affect the diffusion of specific forms of professional knowledge in different groups of organizational stakeholders treated as knowledge agents. Systematic scientific literature analysis, expert evaluation, and structured questionnaires were used to develop and verify the hypotheses. Direct semistructured individual interviews, focus-group online interviews, computer-assisted telephone interviews, and computer-assisted web interviews were also applied in the paper. The research results confirmed the assumption that reliability-based trust, built on competence-based trust and reinforced by benevolence-based trust, is the foundation of the exchange of professional knowledge. It also supported the hypotheses that this process depends on the group of knowledge agents, the dominant form of trust, as well as its enhancers and types of exchanged knowledge. Conducted explorations constitute a theoretical and practical contribution to the subject of professional knowledge exchange. They fill the research gap regarding vehicles of trust as a factor of specialist knowledge diffusion and provide general, practical guidelines in terms of shaping individual components of competence-, benevolence-, and reliability-based trust due to the type of transferred knowledge and the group of knowledge agents involved in its circulation.

Conclusion

This chapter concludes. Its aim is primarily summary and paraphrase, and placing the ideas developed in this book side by side. Cormac McCarthy is gratuitously quoted. And then the chapter brings reflection back to the metaphorical distinction between activity and passivity with which the book began. On the picture the book develops, agents become active by degree, in various ways. With the exercise of control, the passive becomes active, and plans give rise to intentional action. With the development of skill, capacities for planning and for exercising control and for executing intentional action begin to cover broad differences of circumstance. With the acquisition of knowledge, agents are able to impose their will on parts of the world that their practice may not have adequately prepared them for. In knowledgeable action, agents exert change in the world in part by figuring out the world they change.

Putting Phronetic leadership in Action for Social Innovation: A Tale of Social Enterprises

Social enterprises envisioned to pool resources in order to meet the un-met societal needs of the marginalized community. The performance of social enterprises is usually considered as quantifiable reflected through number of projects, number of beneficiaries, loan return ratio, amount of donation etc. but the subjective measure needs to define in social context. Therefore, this study is intended to understand and explore the subjective meanings of phronesis of leaders and its role in the creation of social innovation that can ultimately lead towards economically and socially Superior Pakistan. Taking case study as qualitative research inquiry, semi-structured interviews and observations were used to explore the phenomenon of social innovation. Purposive sampling was used to select the 13 informants (board of directors and project heads) of Akhuwat foundation and Al-Khidmat (top two social enterprises of Pakistan). To analyse the data, Gioia methodology was used based on the socially constructed thoughts/views of knowledge agents. The results of the study expressed that leader of social enterprises employ his/her practical wisdom, virtue, prudence, and value judgment to address social phenomenon through innovative and sustainable solutions.

Corporate brand management in a charity context: the internal communications challenge

PurposeThe purpose of this paper was to investigate the practical issues and challenges faced when managing a corporate brand internally within a charity context from perspectives of both senior managers and grassroots volunteers.Design/methodology/approachAn interpretive exploratory approach was adopted, where emphasis was placed on giving voice to participants considered as knowledge agents. Data collection methods included a combination of interviews and participatory observation. In-depth qualitative interviews were carried out with seven volunteers (including five branch chairs and one trustee) and five senior managers (chief executive officer [CEO], head of fundraising, national and regional directors and head of information and helplines). Participatory observations included visits in five branches as well as participation in two volunteer-targeted events.FindingsFindings from this study revealed the complexities of managing a charity brand internally with several issues and challenges relating to internal communications. Also, three major themes emerged from insights gathered from both senior managers and volunteers, which are as follows: (1) internal brand clarity, (2) internal relational communications and (3) internal brand presence.Originality/valueThe key contribution of the paper lies in exploring the challenges of managing a corporate brand internally from both the perspectives of senior management and volunteers within a unique charity context. The study adds insights on the issues and tension faced by charities in managing their brands internally and provides a series of practical recommendations that might help charities in strengthening their brands from inside.