dc.contributor.author | Norderyd, Axel | |
dc.contributor.author | Nolgren, Linus | |
dc.date.accessioned | 2013-07-16T08:04:46Z | |
dc.date.available | 2013-07-16T08:04:46Z | |
dc.date.issued | 2013-07-16 | |
dc.identifier.uri | http://hdl.handle.net/2077/33483 | |
dc.description.abstract | Professional service firms are gaining more attention in the academic field today due to
the improved importance of the sector in the developed world. When professional
service firms internationalize, expatriation is a common tool for transferring company
specific tacit and explicit knowledge, unique for the firm. Previous scholars have
however not, to our knowledge, taken the transfer of knowledge back to the home office
into consideration; this thesis aims at describing the flow of knowledge in both
directions, managed by the expatriates.
To investigate the management of knowledge in internationalizing PSFs, one
management consultant firm is studied and three qualitative, in-depth interviews are held
with personnel from both the home office as well as the subsidiary, situated in China.
Thereafter, this is analyzed with theories regarding transnational corporations,
knowledge, knowledge management, expatriates and professional service firms.
The main findings suggest that expatriates do function as an important knowledge
sharing mechanism for mainly explicit knowledge. Tacit knowledge is also accumulated
by operating on a foreign market, however our findings indicate that this knowledge is
too difficult to spread throughout the whole organization, hence it is kept embedded in
the expatriates.
These findings are finally discussed and suggestions for future research regarding the
transfer of knowledge with the use of real-time information technology, retention of
expatriates, choice of knowledge sharing strategy and firm size as an influence on
knowledge sharing, are put forward. | sv |
dc.language.iso | eng | sv |
dc.relation.ispartofseries | Management & Organisation | sv |
dc.relation.ispartofseries | 13:35 | sv |
dc.subject | transnational organization | sv |
dc.subject | professional service firms | sv |
dc.subject | expatriation | sv |
dc.subject | knowledge management | sv |
dc.subject | knowledge transfer | sv |
dc.subject | tacit knowledge | sv |
dc.subject | explicit knowledge | sv |
dc.title | Expatriates as a Knowledge Sharing Mechanism - A case study of A Professional Service Firm | sv |
dc.type | Text | |
dc.setspec.uppsok | SocialBehaviourLaw | |
dc.type.uppsok | M2 | |
dc.contributor.department | University of Gothenburg/Department of Business Administration | eng |
dc.contributor.department | Göteborgs universitet/Företagsekonomiska institutionen | swe |
dc.type.degree | Student essay | |