Dual Organizational Identification in Multinational Enterprises and Interpersonal Horizontal Knowledge Sharing: A Conceptual Model

How does a subsidiary employees' dual organizational identification (DOI) – with both the local subsidiary and the overall corporation – shape the pattern of interpersonal horizontal knowledge sharing (IHKS) in multinational enterprises (MNEs)? This conceptual article develops a conceptual model demonstrating the relationships between subsidiary employees' DOI and their IHKS patterns (i.e., quantity, quality, and timing). We propose that subsidiary-oriented DOI is negatively associated with IHKS, while MNE-oriented DOI has the opposite effect. Building on this central argument, we posit that the geographic distance, relative competence, and interpersonal similarity between employees and colleagues at other subsidiaries can moderate the relationship between DOI and IHKS and cause unevenness in IHKS patterns that may aggregate at the corporate level, resulting in uneven knowledge flows in the whole MNE system. Our theorizing advances understanding of intra-MNE knowledge sharing by yielding novel propositions about the predictors of IHKS and uneven knowledge flows in MNE.