Knowledge transfer and expatriation practices in MNCs: the role of disseminative capacity

There is a limited amount of studies, which investigate how different managerialpractices may influence the behavior of knowledge senders in multinationalcorporations (MNCs). This paper addresses this gap by looking at whether and howcertain expatriation practices can enhance a) the ability and b) the willingness ofexpatriates to transfer the knowledge they possess from the headquarters to therespective subsidiaries. By stepping on two bodies of literature, namely theknowledge transfer literature and the expatriation literature, we suggest that MNCsmay enhance the expatriates' willingness to transfer their knowledge through theemployment of long-term expatriation practices. Expatriates' ability to transferknowledge may be increased through their involvement in short-term assignments,frequent flyers arrangements and international commuters practices. We testempirically the hypotheses on the basis of data from 92 subsidiaries of Danish MNCslocated in 11 countries.Key words: knowledge transfer, MNC, expatriation, dissemination capacity