Influence Mechanism Analysis in the Knowledge Transfer Process of Multinational Micro Business: A Case Study on Food Companies

Abstract

This study aims to investigate the influence mechanism analysis in the knowledge transfer process of multinational micro food companies. Owning to the economies of scope in production, micro business contributes to the development and prosperity of the overall market. The knowledge transfer from the parent company to subsidiary is of great importance in multinational companies; however, little work has been done to investigate the influence mechanism in the knowledge transfer process of multinational micro companies. In order to address this issue, this study proposes a novel method based on the Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA) to investigate the influence mechanism in the knowledge transfer process of multinational micro food companies. For the first time, DEA has been used to assess the impact of four typical factors (i.e., the transfer subjective wishes, knowledge characteristics, knowledge absorbing ability and cultural difference) on the knowledge transfer process. Empirical analysis has been carried out to quantitatively evaluate the influence contributions of the factors. The analysis results demonstrate that the factors of cultural difference and knowledge absorbing ability greatly influence the knowledge transfer process of multinational micro food companies. Finally, some useful suggestions have been proposed to improve the knowledge transfer process of multinational micro food companies. The proposed suggestions can be provided as reference by other multinational micro companies.