Knowledge flows in international services firms: a conceptual model

Abstract

This essay fills a significant gap in the literature on the internationalization of services, by focusing on the process of knowledge flows between parent firms and their foreign subsidiaries, and its associated impact on organizational learning and competency development. We utilize and extend the model of knowledge flows across multinational corporations developed by Gupta and Govindarajan (2000). Unlike these authors, we do not distinguish between knowledge types, but rather, consider the process of knowledge transfer, where knowledge is perceived in a general way. The knowledge transfer process in service firms, however, is more likely to involve context-specific knowledge than in manufacturing firms. While also recognizing important differences between different types of services, for example, in locational embeddedness and context-specificity, this research does not attempt to differentiate between types of service firms.