Tacitness, learning, and international expansion: A study of foreign direct investment in a knowledge-intensive industry

• 成果类型: Article
• 署名作者: Martin, X; Salomon, R
• 署名单位: New York University; Tilburg University; University of Southern California
• 刊物名称: ORGANIZATION SCIENCE
• ISSN/ISSBN: 1047-7039
• DOI: 10.1287/orsc.14.3.297.15165
• 发表日期: 2003
• 页码: 297-311
• 关键词: knowledge-based; Foreign direct investment; tacit knowledge; learning; experience; corporate expansion; International

摘要

This paper examines the impact of knowledge tacitness on a firm's propensity to establish plants in foreign rather than domestic locations. Our predictions build on knowledge-based, internalization, and evolutionary theories of foreign direct investment. We argue that the tacitness of technology has an inverted-U effect on the propensity to undertake foreign investment. We also expect that as a firm learns about a technology, it will become more likely to make foreign investments. We examine two forms of teaming: that which accumulates as a function of the number of plants previously built by the firm (transfer-based teaming), and that which accumulates as a function of time since the firm started using a technology (time-based teaming). We investigate empirical effects in a sample of investments in the memory segment of the semiconductor industry. Our predictions about the curvilinear effect of tacitness are supported. The results also suggest that teaming is a matter of taking time to become acquainted with the use of the technology, and of gaining experience through successive foreign plant investments. The study adds to the understanding of the effects of knowledge on corporate expansion.