The role of geographical distance on the relationship between cultural intelligence and knowledge transfer

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Vlajčić, D., Marzi, G., Caputo, A. and Dabić, M. ORCID: 0000-0001-8374-9719, 2018. The role of geographical distance on the relationship between cultural intelligence and knowledge transfer. Business Process Management Journal, 25 (1), pp. 104-125. ISSN 1463-7154

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Official URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.1108/BPMJ-05-2017-0129

Abstract

Purpose: This paper's purpose is to investigate the ways in which the geographical distance between headquarters and subsidiaries moderates the relationship between cultural intelligence and the knowledge transfer process.
Design/methodology/approach: A sample of 103 senior expatriate managers working in Croatia from several European and non-European countries was used to test the hypotheses. Data were collected using questionnaires, while the methodology employed to test the relationship between the variables was Partial least square. Furthermore, interaction-moderation effect was utilised to test the impact of geographical distance and, for testing control variables, Partial least square multigroup analysis was used.
Findings: Cultural Intelligence plays a significant role in the knowledge transfer process performance. However, geographical distance has the power to moderate this relationship based on the direction of knowledge transfer. In conventional knowledge transfer, geographical distance has no significant impact. On the contrary, data have shown that, in reverse knowledge transfer, geographical distance has a moderately relevant effect. We supposed that these findings could be connected to the specific location of the knowledge produced by subsidiaries.
Practical implications: Multinational companies should take into consideration that the further away a subsidiary is from the headquarters, and the varying difference between cultures, cannot be completely mitigated by the ability of the manager to deal with cultural differences, namely cultural intelligence. Thus, multinational companies need to allocate resources to facilitate the knowledge transfer between subsidiaries.
Originality/value: The present study stresses the importance of cultural intelligence in the knowledge transfer process, opening up a new stream of research inside these two areas of research.

Item Type:

Journal article

Publication Title:

Business Process Management Journal

Creators:

Vlajčić, D., Marzi, G., Caputo, A. and Dabić, M.

Publisher:

Emerald

Date:

4 July 2018

Volume:

Number: