Disseminative capabilities and manufacturing plant roles in the knowledge network of MNCs

Abstract

Manufacturing plants operating within the international manufacturing network (IMN) of a multinational company (MNC) frequently participate in the intra-company creation and distribution of knowledge, thereby contributing to the competitive advantage of the whole company and at the same time strengthening their own position within the MNC. International business and operations management literature suggests that plants taking up a knowledge-sending role within their IMN have a stronger position within the company. Nevertheless, literature offers little guidance on how to become a knowledge disseminator within the IMN.This article proposes to fill an important gap in the literature related to the concept of disseminative capacity, aiming (1) to explore how the knowledge-sending and knowledge-receiving roles of manufacturing plants can be assessed in an IMN context, and (2) to identify the capabilities needed for a plant to become a knowledge-sending unit within the IMN. To reach this objective, thirteen case studies were analyzed involving plants in four different countries.Results from the case studies show that (1) manufacturing plants can be positioned along a continuum from predominantly knowledge-receiving to predominantly knowledge-sending units, with multiple intermediary positions coexisting; (2) several plants have a strategic intent to change their positions, moving mainly along this continuum towards a higher intensity of knowledge-sending roles; (3) three elements are identified as necessary preconditions to develop disseminative capabilities, namely a knowledge-sharing-oriented organizational culture, incentive systems and organizational structures that reward knowledge sharing, and the intensity of inter-plant human interactions.