| dc.description.abstract | To increase the global integration of business activities and strategies in headquarters and foreign subsidies, there are various ways to transfer knowledge across borders. The use of international assignments has become an integral part of Multinational Corporations’ (MNCs) business strategies because of a great amount of information movement through expatriates, who act as a link between headquarters and foreign subsidies.
The present study is to examine the impact of knowledge stickiness factors on knowledge transfer initiated by expatriates in MNCs in Taiwan. The degree of expatriates’ willingness to transfer knowledge may be influenced by cultural context, organizational content, relational context and type of knowledge. Both quantitative and qualitative method are employed in the present work. 110 questionnaires were sent out to expatriates in MNCs in Taiwan and 53 completed questionnaires were returned, among which 3 invlaid questionnaires were excluded, and 50 questionnaires were used, representing a response rate of 48 percent. After statistical analyses by T examination, correlation coefficient analysis and social stratum through SPSS 16.0 software and the content analysis of qualitative method, the following key findings are concluded:
1.The relation between the measure of “social context” and knowledge transfer willingness from expatriates is negative. This is because that the cultural value and the working patterns of expatriates are different from those of the knowledge recipients in Taiwan, which serves as a barrier for knowledge transfer processes, which, in turn, impacts expatriates’ knowledge transfer willingness further.
2.The relation between the measure of “organization context” and knowledge transfer willingness from expatriates is a positive one. This may be due to unsupported infrastructures (e.g., on-job-training and out-of-date training materials from webpage), and the difference in business culture (e.g., forced leave policy and scheduling difference). These are barriers during knowledge transfer processes and therefore impact expatriates’ knowledge transfer willingess further.
3.The relation between the measure of “relational context” and the knowledge transfer willingness from expatriates is a positive one. The expatriates are highly impacted by knowledge recipients in comparison with the relationship between Taiwan subsidiary and headquarter. The fact that there is little trust between knowledge providers and recipients is a barrier during knowledge transfer processes, which impacts expatriates’ knowledge transfer willingess further.
4.The influence of high tacit, complex and specified knowledge on expatriates’ knowedge transfer willingness is negative. This is because that expatriates are lack of experiences in delviering untechnical training, or the knowledge is sticked within some departments. These are barriers during knowledge transfer processes that impact expatriates’ knowledge transfer willingess further.
5.Based to population variable, the female has higher knowledge transfer willingness than the male, those age over 35 is higher than those of age under 35, those with master degree and above is higher than those with bachelor degree, those with working experience over 10 years is higher than those with 10 years below, those with expatriation period over 3 years is higher than those with 3 years below and interviewers from Europe and America have high willingess to transfer their knowledge as this is their main task to expatrate to Taiwan.
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