Governing Knowledge-Processes [Paperback]

The objective of this special issue is to contribute to the understanding of Knowledge Governance in the Mulitnational Corporation. Like the traditional literature on corporate governance the authors are concerned with the attraction of crucial capital, its efficient allocation, as well as the mechanism used to achieve capital accumulation and optimal utilization. Knowledge as a particular sort of capital is seen as increasingly crucial to the existence, boundaries, and economic organization of modern Multinational Corporation.lication. Key criteria for inclusion included a sound combination of conceptuali? zation and empirical grounding in response to the questions above. Peter J. Buckley and Martin J. Carter in their paper Governing Knowledge Sharing in Multinational Enterprises examines knowledge-sharing processes in four UK MNCs. A key challenge is to design governance architectures so that application strategy (uses of a given portfolio of knowledge) and discovery strategy (new combinations of knowledge) can be supported through knowledge sharing. A key trade-off obtains here between integration and partitioning of knowledge assets, whereby increased partitioning facilitates local knowledge sharing but complicates global integration. In addition, coordination mechanisms employed in the governance of knowledge sharing may be organized centrally or decentrally, whereby central organization may lead to knowledge loss and managerial overload while decentral organization may lead to loss of control. An important contingency in resolving these governance problems is the extent to which firms follow application and discovery strategies. In addition, the authors recommend to closely integrate incentive systems with attempts for knowledge sharing including individual incentives and rewards. Julian Birkinshaw and Carl F. Fey examine the Organization of Research and Development in Large Multinational Firms in a sample of 107 firms based in the UK and Sweden. The key challlCv