1.

Record Nr.

UNINA9910863140103321

Autore

Hünnemeyer Vanessa Rebecca

Titolo

Knowledge Transfers over Geographical Distance in Organisations : The Role of Spatial Mobility and Business Networks / / by Vanessa Rebecca Hünnemeyer

Pubbl/distr/stampa

Springer Fachmedien Wiesbaden, 2020

Wiesbaden : , : Springer Fachmedien Wiesbaden : , : Imprint : Springer Spektrum, , 2020

ISBN

3-658-31018-9

Edizione

[1st ed. 2020.]

Descrizione fisica

1 online resource (322 pages)

Collana

Perspektiven der Humangeographie, , 2524-3381

Disciplina

650.13

Soggetti

Social sciences

Human geography

Social Sciences, general

Human Geography

Lingua di pubblicazione

Inglese

Formato

Materiale a stampa

Livello bibliografico

Monografia

Nota di contenuto

Introduction -- Knowledge transfer, space and organisations: a multi-perspective discussion -- Being mobile at work: mobility practices in organisations and their impact on intra-firm networks and knowledge transfers -- Expatriation: social networks and knowledge flows -- Situating the research question -- Studying social networks and knowledge transfer over geographical distance in organisations -- The business perspective: the role of spatial mobility and intra-firm social ties -- The expatriate perspective: spatial mobility, social networks and flows of knowledge -- Discussion of empirical finding -- Final conclusion.

Sommario/riassunto

Current corporate structures based on internationalisation and decentralisation are opposed to the nature of the most important resource: knowledge. The acquisition and exchange of (tacit) knowledge relies on interpersonal interactions and is thus time- and place-dependent. Given that the combination of heterogeneous knowledge stocks furthers innovation, organisations develop strategies to ensure the transfer of knowledge. To enable intra-organisational



knowledge flows spatial mobility at the workplace affects a wide range of employees. The study examines in which ways spatially mobile employees, i.e. expatriates, contribute to those knowledge flows. The study of ego networks reveals not only social dynamics of knowledge transfer, but the geographical framework allows to discuss knowledge flows from a spatial perspective. On the one hand, the empirical results confirm their knowledge transfer function. On the other hand, the relational geographical perspective reveals that expatriates do not represent a homogeneous group, but their roles in the knowledge transfer process, the geographical reach of their networks and their knowledge resources depend on job-, knowledge-, individual- and space-related factors.