Boundary-crossing and the localization of capabilities in a Japanese multinational firm |
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| Authors: | Jacky FL Hong Robin Stanley Snell |
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| Institution: | 1. Faculty of Business Administration, University of Macau, Av. Padre Tomas Pereira, S.J. Taipa, Macau S.A.R., P.R. Chinafbaflh@umac.mo;3. Department of Management, Lingnan University, Hong Kong, P.R. China |
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| Abstract: | We conducted a case study to explore the challenges encountered by a foreign subsidiary of a Japanese multinational firm when localizing its organizational capabilities in China. Drawing on the concepts of boundaries and boundary-crossing, we identify pragmatic and cultural knowledge boundaries, which denied opportunities for the host-country employees to contribute their local expertise to augment the firm's core capabilities within the domains of research and development and operational protocols. However, within those domains that were regarded as complementary to or peripheral to the firm's core capabilities, host-country employees were granted more scope to cross the associated pragmatic boundaries. |
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| Keywords: | knowledge boundaries capabilities Japanese MNCs China foreign subsidiaries localization |
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