Balancing global and local strategic contexts: Expatriate knowledge transfer, applications, and learning within a transnational organization
研究了外派人员如何通过知识获取和沟通活动，实现知识应用和体验式学习，从而帮助跨国企业平衡全球效率、本地响应和全球学习三大战略目标。
Abstract We investigate how expatriates contribute to the transnational firm's strategic objectives of global efficiency, national (”local”) responsiveness, and worldwide learning. We focus on expatriate knowledge application and experiential learning achievements, two assignment‐based outcomes of potential strategic value to the firm. We assess how the individual's everyday knowledge access and communication activities, measured by frequency and geographic extent, affect these assignment outcomes. Within our case organization, a prototype transnational firm, we find that expatriate knowledge applications result from frequent knowledge access and communication with the corporate headquarters and other global units of the firm. In contrast, their experiential learning derives from frequent access to hostcountry (local) knowledge that subsequently is adapted to the global corporate context. From a practical perspective, we conclude that experiential learning is an invaluable resource for both present and future corporate assignments. © 2007 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.