The deployment of knowledge sharing mechanisms in service MNCs : the impact of industry and culture

Abstract

The purpose of this thesis is to study the mechanisms used by service MNCs to promote knowledge sharing (KS). More specifically, this thesis studies the impact of industry and culture on social capital (SC) and the role of SC in KS. The objective is to identify the most effective knowledge governance mechanisms to promote knowledge sharing in the banking and consulting industries. Our research model consists of Knowledge Governance Approach (KGA) and SC which we use to analyze knowledge sharing mechanisms in the banking and consulting industries. Furthermore, we study the impact of industry and culture on KS by interviewing DNB, BES, Millennium bcp, IBM and Accenture in Norway and Portugal. Based on the interviews we develop a comparative analysis between the banking and consulting companies in two cultural contexts. Based on our empirical research, the findings suggest that industry determines KS in service MNCs more than culture. The banking industry uses primarily hierarchical mechanisms to promote KS across their operations while the consulting industry favors social mechanisms due to their network organization structure. The market-based incentives are not widely adopted in the sole promotion of KS.