The existing literature presents mixed findings on how intra-multinational enterprise (MNE) competition affects cross-border interpersonal knowledge sharing; some studies indicate that it hinders, while others suggest that it facilitates, such exchanges. The purpose of this study is to address this issue by proposing and testing the U-shaped curvilinear effects of intra-MNE competition on cross-border interpersonal knowledge sharing.
The authors conducted a survey bias test, confirmatory factor analysis and regression analysis on data gathered from a two-stage questionnaire survey of 333 R&D employees in India, representing 40 R&D subsidiaries across MNEs headquartered in 11 countries. To mitigate potential common method bias, the authors implemented ex-ante and ex-post measures.
The results of this study show a U-shaped effect of perceived intra-MNE competition on interpersonal knowledge sharing behaviours. The authors found that low to moderate levels of intra-MNE competition hinder cross-border interpersonal knowledge sharing within the MNE, while moderate to high levels facilitate it.
The novelty of this study lies in challenging the current linear relationship and highlighting that the impact of the perceived intensity of intra-MNE competition on knowledge-sharing behaviours varies at different competition levels.
