Too Much of Two Good Things: Explicating the Limited Complementarity Between Drivers of MNC Headquarters’ Absorptive Capacity

Lívia Lopes Barakat (), Torben Pedersen (), Marcio Amaral-Baptista (), Sherban Leornardo Cretoiu () and Paulo Bento ()
Additional contact information
Lívia Lopes Barakat: Alphaville Lagoa Dos Ingleses
Torben Pedersen: Bocconi University
Marcio Amaral-Baptista: Mohammed VI Polytechnic University, Africa Business School
Sherban Leornardo Cretoiu: Alphaville Lagoa Dos Ingleses
Paulo Bento: ISCTE-University Institute of Lisbon

Management International Review, 2022, vol. 62, issue 3, No 3, 393-426

Abstract: Abstract This study examines how multinational corporation (MNC) knowledge management mechanisms (systems, coordination and socialization) and international exposure affect MNC headquarters' absorptive capacity (AC). We build on Cohen and Levinthal's (Admin Sci Quart 35(1):128–152, 1990, https://doi.org/10.2307/2393553 ) under-researched trade-off between the inward- and outward-looking drivers of AC in the context of the MNC international knowledge transfer. First, we hypothesize that knowledge management mechanisms (the inward-looking driver) and international exposure (the outward-looking driver) directly influence headquarters' AC. Our findings from a sample of 106 Brazilian and Portuguese MNC headquarters support this view. Second, because "not-invented-here" syndrome and distance can affect knowledge flows from subsidiaries, we develop a hypothesis on the trade-off between AC's inward- and outward-looking drivers. We observe that their impact on the AC of MNC headquarters is diminished for high levels of coordination mechanisms and international exposure. Hence, coordination mechanisms become less effective to absorb subsidiary knowledge as the MNC increases its international footprint. We also conclude that the headquarters of highly internationalized MNCs can regard socialization mechanisms as facilitators of the absorption of knowledge generated by subsidiaries.

Keywords: Absorptive capacity; Knowledge management mechanisms; International exposure; Multinational corporation (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2022
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

Downloads: (external link)
http://link.springer.com/10.1007/s11575-022-00474-1 Abstract (text/html)
Access to the full text of the articles in this series is restricted.

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:spr:manint:v:62:y:2022:i:3:d:10.1007_s11575-022-00474-1

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
http://www.springer.com/journal/11575

DOI: 10.1007/s11575-022-00474-1

Access Statistics for this article

Management International Review is currently edited by Michael-Jörg Oesterle and Joachim Wolf

More articles in Management International Review from Springer
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Sonal Shukla () and Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing ().