다국적기업 본사의 역지식이전 동기요인에 대한 탐색적 연구

Reverse knowledge transfer has been an important research theme in the literature on multinational corporations (MNCs). This paper proposes major determinants of MNC headquarters’ willingness to adopt and use marketing knowledge from their subsidiaries. We argue that the willingness will be jointly determined by both the headquarter’s absorptive capacity and the focal subsidiary’s transfer capacity and willingness to transfer. In addition, we argue that these capability and motivation effects are moderated by (1) institutional distance between home and the focal host country, (2) the need to unlearn existing routines, and (3) types of entry modes. This paper contributes to the reverse knowledge transfer literature by proposing the argument that both motivational and capability factors are likely to determine the MNC parents’ willingness to adopt and use marketing knowledge from their subsidiaries.