Diversity and knowledge sharing : an analysis of integration processes in multinational firms (MNFs)

Corporate R&D internationalization is today perceived as a strategy intended for enhancing the knowledge of large firms within a highly-polarized global cognitive space. Two main questions arise and, as such, are incorporated as the two complementary themes of this paper: What are the risks of wasting resources used by multinational firms (MNFs) when they establish or take over laboratories abroad ? What strategies do they apply to harmonize relations between their various R&D entities and, as such, help reduce these risks ? The analysis is developed from a base comprising international cases, established within the R&D laboratories of multinational firms. R&D internationalization strategies generate a great diversity of knowledge. Consequently, these MNFs should develop inter-entity management skills, for which the paper provides a few of the keys to success. The factors determining the effectiveness of the articulation of knowledge sharing systems were not really part of any systematic analysis. Such an analysis would have been an opportunity to specifically appraise this. The approach could indeed improve social interaction-related issues. The results may greatly add to social interaction theories by attempting, above all, to enhance "sender - receiver" type models, on a MNF network scale.