본-자회사 간 혁신노하우의 국제적 이전을 결정하는 요인에 관한 연구

In this study, we investigate the factors that may influence the parent-subsidiary transfer of innovation know-how within a multinational company. We define innovation know-how as a set of organizational skills that helps the firm to create and adopt an innovation within its organization. We focus on this type of organizational skills, since the transfer of such skills is critical for developing a competent subsidiary that can resolve problems on its own. In the long run, therefore, a MNC can enhance its competitiveness in the global market, by transferring its innovation know-how to foreign subsidiaries. We empirically investigate the international transfer of the skills in the context of a single business group headquartered in Korea. As one of the most largest and internationalized business groups in Korea, it has implemented many business innovation projects as a way to diffuse its problem solving know-how within its international network of organization. These projects were specifically aimed to enhance the capability of the foreign subsidiaries to generate innovative solutions and practices for the problems in various areas, such as technology, production, marketing, and organization. For the reason, they serve as the key mechanisms through which the headquarters’ innovation know-how is transmitted to foreign subsidiaries. More specifically, our sample consists of 78 business innovation projects carried out by foreign subsidiaries of the group during the 2000-2003 period. The data was collected through a mail-survey. The respondents were the managers who were in charge of the innovation projects in foreign subsidiaries. Our analysis reveals that tacitness is an important barrier to the international transfer of innovation know-how, but the absorptive capacity of the subsidiary is a facilitating factor. We also find that innovation know-how is more efficiently transmitted, when project team managers maintain formal communication channels with parent managers as the complementary transfer channels. Intriguing, however, informal networks between parent and subsidiary managers do not serve as such complementary channels. In addition, other important contributing factors include the high potential value of innovation know-how perceived by the project team managers and the support and assistance both from the subsidiary’s top management and from the headquarters’ specialist group. These findings suggest that the sharing of innovation know-how poses a difficult challenge to a multinational firm due to its tacit nature, but the firm may effectively deal with the challenge by setting up appropriate formal transfer mechanisms and providing support for international innovation activities.