Learning and knowledge acquisition through international strategic alliances

Academy of Management Executive

Volumn 12, Issue 4, 1998, Pages 69-80

  Inkpen, Andrew C ^a  

^a American Graduate School Of International Management ^*  (United States)

Author keywords

[No Author keywords available]

Indexed keywords

EID: 2342439143     PISSN: 10795545     EISSN: None     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.5465/ame.1998.1333953     Document Type: Article

References (39)

1. For example, D. Epple, L. Argote, and R. Devadas, "Organizational Learning Curves: A Method for Investigating Intra-Plant Transfer of Knowledge Acquired Through Learning by Doing," Organization Science, 2 (1991) pp. 58-70 showed how knowledge transfer improved manufacturing productivity.
2. Y. L. Doz, "The Evolution of Cooperation in Strategic Alliances: Initial Conditions or Learning Processes? Strategic Management Journal, 17 (Special Issue, Summer, 1996) pp. 55-85 found that learning cycles over time contributed to alliance efficiency and adaptability.
3. H. Barkema, J. Bell, and J. Pennings, "Foreign Entry, Cultural, Barriers, and Learning," Strategic Management Journal, 17 (1996) pp. 151-166 found that learning and experience supported international expansion strategies.
4. For example, the Winter 1996 Special Issue of the Strategic Management Journal is devoted to knowledge-based theories of the firm.
5. A. Parkhe, "Interfirm Diversity, Organizational Learning, and Longevity in Global Strategic Alliances," Journal of International Business Studies, 22 (1991) pp. 579-601.
6. For example, because of the enormous risks, alliances are usually formed for oil and gas exploration. In these alliances, one partner is usually the designated operator and the other partners have financial interests. The learning opportunities are limited for the non-operator partners.
7. A. C. Inkpen, "Creating Knowledge Through Collaboration," California Management Review, 39 (1996), no. 1, pp. 123-140;
8. A. C. Inkpen and M. M. Crossan, "Believing is Seeing: Joint Ventures and Organization Learning," Journal of Management Studies, 32 (1995) pp. 595-618.
9. Company names are disguised.
10. D. C. Mowery, J. E. Oxley, and B. S. Silverman, "Strategic Alliances and Interfirm Knowledge Transfer," Strategic Management Journal 17 (Special issue, Winter 1996), pp. 77-92.
11. For example, see R. M. Grant, "Toward a Knowledge-based theory of the firm," Strategic Management Journal, 17 (Special issue, Winter 1996), pp. 109-122.
12. G. Hedlund and I. Nonaka, "Models of Knowledge Management in the West and Japan," In P. Lorange, B. Chakravarthy, J. Roos, and A. Van de Ven, eds., Implementing Strategic Processes: Change, Learning and Co-operation (Oxford: Basil Blackwell, 1993) pp. 117-144.
13. D. H. Kim, "The Link Between Individual and Organizational Learning," Sloan Management Review 35 (Fall 1993), pp. 37-50.
14. Nonaka has written extensively in the area of knowledge creation. See: I. Nonaka, "A Dynamic Theory of Organizational Knowledge," Organization Science 5, (February 1994) pp. 14-37;
15. I. Nonaka, "The Knowledge-creating Company," Harvard Business Review, 69 (November/December 1991) pp. 90-104.
16. Nonaka and H. Takeuchi have argued that one of the limitations of organizational learning theory is its failure to develop the concept of knowledge creation. See I. Nonaka and H. Takeuchi, The Knowledge Creating Company: How Japanese Companies Create the Dynamics of Innovation (New York: Oxford University Press, 1995).
17. J. Dunning, Reappraising the Eclectic Paradigm in An Age of Alliance Capitalism," Journal of International Business Studies 26 (Third Quarter 1995) pp. 461-492.
18. E. C. Nevis, A. DiBella, and J. M. Gould, "Understanding Organizations as Learning Systems," Sloan Management Review 36 (Winter 1995) pp. 73-85.
19. M. A. Lyles, "Learning Among JV-Sophisticated Firms," In F. Contractor and P. Lorange, eds., Cooperative Strategies in International Business (Lexington, MA: Lexington Books, 1988) pp. 301-316.
20. M. Keller, Rude Awakening: The Rise, Fall, and Struggle for Recovery of General Motors (New York: William Morrow, 1989).
21. R. Grant, "The Resource-Based Theory of Competitive Advantage: Implications for Strategy Formulation," California Management Review, 34 (Spring 1991) pp. 119-135.
22. An interesting question is why Toyota is not more protective of its technology in the NUMMI JV. Based on my interviews with NUMMI and GM managers, there are three reasons: 1) Toyota needs an amicable relationship with GM for political reasons; 2) Toyota recognizes that a deep understanding of the Toyota Production System is not possible without years of study and involvement and 3) NUMMI does not have Toyota's most advanced manufacturing technology.
23. The JV was originally formed because the Japanese partner wanted local market support in the United States and the American partner sought access to the Japanese partner's technology.
24. A. C. Inkpen and P. W. Beamish, "Knowledge, Bargaining Power and International Joint Venture Stability," Academy of Management Review, 22 (1997) pp. 177-202.
25. Nonaka and Takeuchi, Academy of Management Review op. cit., 1995.
26. A. Yan and B. Gray, "Bargaining Power, Management Control, and Performance in United States-China Joint Ventures: A Comparative Case Study," Academy of Management Journal 37 (1994) pp. 1478-1517.
27. For example, see: J. L. Badaracco, The Knowledge Link (Boston: Harvard Business School Press, 1991);
28. T. A. Mahoney and J. R. Deckop, J. R., "Y'Gotta Believe: Lessons From American-vs. Japanese-run U.S. Factories," Organizational Dynamics, 21 (4, 1993) pp. 27-38;
29. T. Sasaki, "What the Japanese Have Learned From Strategic Alliances," Long Range Planning, 26 (6, 1993) pp. 41-53.
30. R. M. Grant, "Prospering in Dynamically-Competitive Environments: Organizational Capability as Knowledge Integration," Organization Science, 7 (1996) pp. 375-388.
31. The term absorptive capacity was first used by W. M. Cohen and D. A. Levinthal, "Absorptive Capacity: A New Perspective on Learning and Innovation," Administrative Science Quarterly, 35 (1990) pp. 128-152.
32. For a study that explores organizational determinants of absorptive capacity, see J. M. Pennings and F. Harianto, "The diffusion of technological innovation in the commercial banking sector," Strategic Management Journal, 13 (1992) pp. 29-46.
33. P. J. Lane and M. Lubatkin, "Relative Absorptive Capacity and Interorganizational Learning," Strategic Management Journal, forthcoming, found that a firm's ability to learn from another is a function of existing knowledge bases, organization structures and compensation policies, and dominant firm logics.
34. J. B. Quinn, P. Anderson, and S. Finkelstein, "Leveraging intellect," Academy of Management Executive (10, 1996, no. 3) pp. 7-27.
35. Inkpen. Academy of Management Executive op. cit., 1996.
36. Nonaka, Academy of Management Executive op. cit., 1994.
37. D. E. Westney, "Domestic and Foreign Learning Curves in Managing International Cooperative Strategies," In F. Contractor and P. Lorange, eds., Cooperative Strategies in International Business (Lexington, MA: Lexington Books, 1988) pp. 339-346.
38. E. H. Schein, "Three Cultures of Management: The Key to Organizational Learning," Sloan Management Review, 38 (Fall 1996), pp. 9-20.
39. H. G. Barkema, O. Shenkar, F. Vermeulen, J. H. Bell, "Working Abroad, Working With Others: How Firms Learn to Operate International Joint Ventures," Academy of Management Journal, 40 (1997) pp. 426-442.