| Summary: | 碩士 === 國立成功大學 === 國際企業研究所碩博士班 === 92 === It goes without saying that knowledge is the fundamental basis of competitive advantage, especially when a multinational firm enters a host country by forming a subsidiary. For a successful operation in the host country, a subsidiary firm always needs to get access to new knowledge through networking effort from the parent firm. Recently, many studies have discussed that MNC subsidiary operations rely not solely on their parent company’s knowledge instillation but their own generation from combining local experience and knowledge inflows. And these new knowledge will then trigger further innovation. Although there are plenty of studies which discuss about the interrelationship between knowledge inflows/outflows and innovation, the empirical validation above this research issue is limited. Further validations are required.
In addition, the network relationship between parent firm and its subsidiary may play as a moderating role between knowledge flows and innovation. According to previous study, it is found that social capital, including the trust between the parent firm and the subsidiary firm, the centrality position of the subsidiary firm, and autonomy of subsidiary operation will affect the willingness of parent firm or subsidiary managers to exchange resources. Therefore, these three factors are selected to evaluate the moderating effects on the relationship between knowledge inflows/outflows and innovation. Although there are some studies discussing about knowledge flows, most of them discussed about the interrelationship between knowledge flows and firm performance. Very few studies have emphasized the interrelationships between knowledge inflows/outflows, innovation, and performance for MNC operations.
According to the results of this study, several conclusions were made as followings:
(1) For MNC’s subsidiaries, not only knowledge inflows from parent firms or peer firms but also knowledge outflows to parent firms or peer firms did have significantly positive impact on subsidiaries’ innovation and performance.
(2) Among three research variables of social capital, only trust was positively related to MNC’s subsidiaries’ innovation and performance.
(3) Research variables of social capital, including trust, centrality, and autonomy, did not show significant moderating effects on the interrelationship between knowledge inflows/outflows and MNC’s innovation.
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