Transfers of tacit vs. explicit knowledge and performance in international joint ventures: The role of age

Abstract

This paper studies the transfer of tacit and explicit knowledge from foreign parents to international joint ventures (IJVs) and the impact of these two types of knowledge transfers on the performance of young and mature IJVs. We estimate a structural equation model using survey data from 334 Korean joint ventures and find support for our hypotheses regarding IJV age, knowledge transfers, and performance. Our results show that IJV age is positively associated with the transfer of tacit knowledge, but not with the transfer of explicit knowledge. In contrast, the transfer of tacit knowledge has a significant impact on the performance of both young and mature IJVs, while the transfer of explicit knowledge only has a significant effect on the performance of mature IJVs. These results confirm the important role of IJV age as a driver of knowledge transfers in IJVs, and as a moderator of their effects on performance.