Challenges to knowledge sharing across national and intra-organizational boundaries: case studies of IKEA and SCA Packaging

Abstract

The aim of this article is to increase the understanding of how institutional forces and organizational context, in parallel with cognitive issues, impact knowledge sharing within multinational corporations (MNCs). Furthermore, the aim is to elaborate on differences between industries by comparing and contrasting a retail firm with a manufacturing firm. The focus is on IKEA and SCA Packaging and their efforts to share knowledge across national and intra-organizational boundaries. Despite differences between these two MNCs, the case studies illustrate that the will to share and absorb knowledge is very much influenced by institutional forces, as well as by the ways in which organizations are structured and controlled.

Keywords:

• knowledge sharing
• knowledge transfer
• manufacturing
• MNC
• retail

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Anna Jonsson

About the authors

Anna Jonsson is a Ph.D. student at School of Economics and Management, Lund University. Her research interest focuses on internationalization and knowledge sharing.

Thomas Kalling

Thomas Kalling is Associate Professor and the Director of the Institute of Economic Research at Lund University. He does research on, among other things, organizational learning and knowledge sharing.