Integrating Practice Transfer in MNCs and Sustainability

Student thesis: Doctoral ThesisDoctor of Philosophy

Abstract

The transfer of organizational practices in multinational corporations (MNCs) has been one of the main themes in the international business (IB) literature. Moreover, MNCs face increasing pressure to contribute to the tackling of sustainability issues. In line with such important role of MNCs in the tackling of sustainability issues, there have been several recent calls to incorporate sustainability into the IB research. The phenomenon of practice transfer in MNCs can be utilized to make such incorporation of sustainability into the IB research. This is because as MNCs try to contribute to the tackling of these sustainability issues, they need to involve their foreign subsidiaries which implies that the phenomenon of practice transfer will be important here. In other words, the attempt of MNCs to contribute to the tackling of sustainability issues within their intrafirm network will involve the transfer of knowledge and practices between the headquarters of the MNC and the foreign subsidiaries. However, the traditional assumptions of practice transfer in MNCs differ from the assumptions of the tackling of sustainability issues. Thus, this study addresses this research question: how does practice transfer in MNCs evolve in the tackling of sustainability issues? This research follows a qualitative approach and applies a multiple case study design. The thesis utilizes the context of the tackling of global sustainability issues to problematize the dominant view on the phenomenon of practice transfer in MNCs.

The thesis focuses on three main differences between the practice transfer in MNCs in the existing literature and the tackling of sustainability issues. The first one is the fact that the existing literature on practice transfer in MNCs focuses on the adoption or adaptation of a practice template that is transferred between the units of the MNC. However, in the tackling of sustainability issues there is a focus on the achievement of sustainability commitments. The second one is that in the existing literature on practice transfer in MNCs there is a clear differentiation between efficiency-based and legitimacy-based reasons of why the phenomenon of practice transfer occurs between the units of the MNC. However, in the tackling of sustainability issues there is a combination of both efficiency-based and legitimacy-based reasons of why MNCs should contribute to the tackling of sustainability issues. The third one is that most of the existing literature on practice transfer in MNCs follows an intraorganizational perspective. However, the tackling of sustainability issues entails the involvement of a broad range of actors beyond MNCs such as governments and NGOs. This thesis contributes to the IB literature by developing a new way of thinking about the organizational phenomenon of practice transfer in MNCs.
Date of Award1 Sept 2023
Original languageEnglish
Awarding Institution
  • King's College London
SupervisorJohann Fortwengel (Supervisor) & Juliane Reinecke (Supervisor)

Cite this

'