The bridging role of expatriates and inpatriates in knowledge transfer in multinational corporations

Drawing on the knowledge-based view of the firm, this paper provides the first empirical study that explicitly investigates the relationship between different categories of international assignees and knowledge transfer in multinational corporations (MNCs). Specifically, we examine (1) the extent to which expatriate presence in different functional areas is related to knowledge transfer from and to headquarters in these functions; and (2) the extent to which different categories of international assignees (expatriates vs. inpatriates) contribute to knowledge transfer from and to headquarters. We base our investigation on a large scale survey, encompassing data from more than 800 subsidiaries of MNCs in thirteen countries. By disaggregating the role of knowledge transfer across management functions, directions of knowledge transfer, and type of