Determinants of Expatriate Knowledge Transfer Performance: A Social Capital Perspective

Abstract

Although expatriation is increasingly regarded as a vital means for enhancing knowledge diffusion within multinational companies, it has also precluded an in-depth examination of particular inputs to individual performance in knowledge transferring. Drawing upon social capital theory, a model of expatriate knowledge transfer effectiveness in term of knowledge transfer, relational development and task performance, was developed and tested using a sample of 147 expatriate managers working in Hong Kong, Beijing and Shanghai. This model predicts that depth of relationship with host country nationals (HCNs) and access to information and resources (network configuration), trust and instrumental support received (social norm), and HCN's cultural empathy (ability) have direct effects on expatriate knowledge transfer effectiveness. Given the exploratory nature of this research, we hypothesize that all forms of social capital will influence expatriate performance. Results showed the social capital variables were strong predictors of expatriate knowledge transfer performance. Depth of relation, access to information and resources, HCN's cultural empathy had significant direct effects on various dimensions of performance (i.e., knowledge transfer, relational development and knowledge transfer), but the social norm constructs (i.e., trust and instrumental support received) were not found the supports as expected. Implications of these findings and directions for future research are provided.