The role of international assignees' social capital in creating inter-unit intellectual capital: A cross-level model

• 成果类型: Article
• 署名作者: Reiche, B. Sebastian; Harzing, Anne-Wil; Kraimer, Maria L.
• 署名单位: University of Navarra; IESE Business School; University of Melbourne; University of Iowa
• 刊物名称: JOURNAL OF INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS STUDIES
• ISSN/ISSBN: 0047-2506
• DOI: 10.1057/jibs.2008.86
• 发表日期: 2009
• 页码: 509-526
• 关键词: INTERNATIONAL ASSIGNMENTS; MNE knowledge flows; Social capital; intellectual capital

摘要

We conceptualize international assignees as informational boundary spanners between multinational enterprise units, and develop a cross-level model that explores how assignees' social capital translates into inter-unit intellectual capital. First, as knowledge brokers, assignees create inter-unit intellectual capital by linking their home- and host-unit social capital, thereby enabling cross-unit access to previously unconnected knowledge resources. Second, as knowledge transmitters, assignees' host-unit social capital facilitates their creation of individual intellectual capital, which, in turn, translates into inter-unit intellectual capital. We conclude that individual social capital needs to be explicitly transferred to the organizational level to have a sustained effect on inter-unit intellectual capital.