社会网络视角下的中国跨国公司海外子公司知识转移研究

Complementing the traditional focus on the actors' attributes, the social network theory focuses on the relationships among actors other than the actors themselves. As the result, it provides a new perspective for the MNC knowledge transfer. As the importance of the social network theory, nowadays more and more scholars take the social networks into their studies on MNC knowledge transfer, instead of just focusing on the two parties (the source unit and the target unit) involved in the MNC knowledge transfer. However, nowadays studies, which are from the social network perspective, still have some theory gaps. Firstly, most of them put their attention on the MNCs' internal social network, while the MNCs locate in many intersecting social networks-including external network besides internal ones. Secondly, most studies' research objects are MNCs from developed countries. But China is a developing country, so those conclusions may be not applicable to Chinese MNCs. To fill the gaps, this study tries to take a more comprehensive view and a new research object. Firstly, this study considers the headquarters and the foreign subsidiaries as the nodes, which locate in many intersecting network and have different identities and different responsibilities. Secondly, this study uses Chinese MNCs as our research objects. As the result, this study pays its attention on the following questions. (1)How the characteristics of the headquarters' internal social networks and that of their external ones affect the knowledge transfer from the foreign subsidiaries to the headquarters respectively?(2) How the characteristics of the foreign subsidiaries' internal social networks and that of their external ones affect the knowledge transfer from the foreign subsidiaries to the headquarters respectively? (3) How the structural inequivalence between the headquarters' internal social networks and external ones affect the knowledge transfer from the foreign subsidiaries to the headquarters? (4) How the structural inequivalence between the foreign subsidiaries' internal social networks and external ones affect the knowledge transfer from the foreign subsidiaries to the headquarters? To explore those questions, this study use both qualitative research methods and quantitative ones, from theory building by cross case studies to large-sample empirical researches. By doing this study, we try to provide a new perspective for the MNC knowledge transfer studies. And we also hope that our conclusions can rich the theories of developing countries' MNCs knowledge transfer and serve for the management in the developing countries' MNCs.

社会网络理论的兴起和广泛应用为研究跨国公司知识转移问题提供了新的视角。现有研究多聚焦于内部网络特征对知识转移的影响，却忽视跨国公司的多重复杂网络特性；多以发达国家跨国公司及其海外子公司为对象，却少有基于中国跨国企业及其海外子公司的研究。本研究从社会网络视角出发，立足海外子公司的制度双重性和网络节点身份多重性特征，以中国跨国公司海外子公司向母公司转移知识为研究对象，借助规范的多案例研究进行理论构建并以此为基础推进实证研究，重点探索母公司内部网络特征、母公司外部网络特征、海外子公司内部网络特征、海外子公司外部网络特征、以及母公司内外部网络不一致性、海外子公司内外部网络不一致性等对海外子公司向母公司转移知识的影响，在检验已有研究发现的同时，尝试以中国跨国公司海外子公司的网络化知识转移实践为基础构建并验证理论，丰富跨国公司知识转移理论，特别关于新兴国家跨国公司知识转移的理论，并为实践提供指导。

项目研究紧紧围绕“中国企业的海外子公司向母公司转移知识”这一主线展开，完成了有关文献梳理、企业高管访谈、量表开发与问卷设计、学术论文撰写、教学案例开发、实践性文章撰写等研究任务，取得了相应的学术成果。.项目重点研究了知识转移在中国企业国际竞争力提升中的地位，影响海外子公司向母公司转移知识的因素，特别是影响这一知识转移过程的社会网络因素，以及社会网络的特性，中国企业的海外子公司向母公司转移知识的内在机制，网络化组织重构在海外子公司向母公司转移知识中的作用，社会资本在海外子公司向母公司转移知识中的作用，项目研究发现：跨国公司母公司及子公司的内部网络与外部网络、价值链对接、组织重构等直接影响着知识从海外子公司向母公司的逆向转移。借助网络化组织作用的充分发挥、组织重构、迂回方式等，中国企业可以有效地推动海外子公司向母公司的知识转移。.项目研究在SSCI英文期刊Management and Organization Review被接收论文1篇，在AOM、AIB、SMS会议宣读论文4篇，在《管理世界》、《科研管理》、《科学学与科学技术管理》、《经济管理》、《国际经济合作》等中文期刊发表论文8篇，清华经管中国工商管理案例中心收录案例4篇。此外，还形成多篇发表于《国际经济合作》之上与本项课题研究密切相关的其他论文。期间，依托本项目，项目负责人指导毕业博士1人，在读博士生2人，入站博士后1人；指导毕业硕士7名。