從高階經營團隊探討國際合資的組織學習、知識創造與創新

ORGANIZATIONAL LEARNING, KNOWLEDGE CREATION, AND INNOVATION IN INTERNATIONAL JOINT VENTURES: A TOP MANAGEMENT TEAM PERSPECTIVE

薛雅文(Ya-wen Hsueh)

指導教授 ： 梁文貴

大同大學/經營設計學院/事業經營學系所/碩士(2004年)

摘要

國際合資為進入海外市場的有效模式之一，除經濟與策略上的考量外，在今日以知識為基礎的競爭趨勢下，更應將知識的取得、創造列入重要的策略因素。而國際合資之成敗，高階經營團隊乃扮演最為關鍵的角色(Li, Xin, Tsui, and Hambrick, 1999)。且國際合資經理人之國籍、文化價值、國際經驗等差異影響國際合資營運極為深遠，因此合資經營團隊的領導者如何居間協調並整合其間的差異，進而創造相輔相成的綜效更形重要。

具體而言，本研究之研究問題如下：
一、 高階經營團隊如何影響國際合資之經營績效？
二、 高階經營團隊如何影響國際合資之知識創造與創新？
三、 國際合資中領導者之特質與管理風格如何影響其經營團隊及經營績效？
四、 國家文化差異如何影響國際合資之知識創造與創新？高階經營團隊又如何營造有效的跨文化之知識交流、創造的環境（Ba），以達到創新之目的？

從研究方法而論，本研究採用比較個案研究法，針對中美、中日合資事業進行深度訪談及觀察，且對高階經營團隊成員進行問卷調查，以結合定性與定量研究進行資料分析，最後綜合研究發現與過去之相關文獻提出研究命題。

本研究發現：領導者之管理風格、特質對團隊績效與國際合資之經營成敗與知識創造情境之營造具關鍵影響力。而高階經營團隊成員間之頻繁且良好互動，可有效提升國際合資知識創造與創新能力，而透過團隊學習方式可激發創新。雖然國家文化差異對國際合資團隊之運作影響不大，但語言障礙仍是國際合資團隊有效運作之最大挑戰。

本研究對國際合資學術研究之貢獻，為：(1)補強知識觀點的國際合資研究；(2)從高階經營團隊探討國際合資公司之知識創造與創新。而對實務界的貢獻，則為：(1)提供國際合資事業經營知識創造與創新決策之參考架構；(2)國際合資之運作必須考量文化差異與知識交流平台之建置，以使跨國間的知識得以順利交流、互相學習，以提升跨國企業營運之整體競爭力。

關鍵字

組織學習 ； 知識創造 ； 創新 ； ba ； 高階經營團隊

並列摘要

ABSTRACT

An international joint venture (IJV) is a widely adopted mode of entry into foreign markets. With local partners, the firm could reduce liabilities of foreignness and have keen insights about into the local environment, thus increasing the likelihood of success. Compared with international acquisition and merger, an international joint venture performs better. In most joint ventures, some key management team members are operating in an unfamiliar territory. Many expatriates working in a host country may have little understanding of the local language and culture. In the midst of this complex system resides the joint venture leadership team, responsible for the venture’s daily operations and long-term success. Apart from making more alert decisions in globalization arena, top management team (TMT) has to foster the building of learning context so as to nurture their knowledge, and then to out-perform competitors.
Managing an international joint venture, composed of people with different nationalities, poses even tougher and more unpredictable challenges. Because of diverse cultural backgrounds, members of TMT in an IJV might encounter ineffective communication, resulting in misunderstanding and even hostility and eventually leading to poor functioning of the entire organization. Therefore, the establishment and management of TMT is a top priority in successful management of an IJV and her going-concern. Taken together, the research questions of this study are numerated as follows.

1. How would top management team influence the performance of an international joint venture?
2. How would top management team influence the knowledge creation and innovation within the international joint venture?
3. How would a leader’s characteristics and management style influence the management team and corporate performance?
4. How would national cultural differences influence the knowledge creation and innovation within the international venture? How could the top management team cultivate an effective knowledge sharing and creating context (or Ba) across cultures, thus contributing to innovation generation?
From this research, it is found that the management style of top management team, rather characteristics of TMT members, significantly influences the operations of international joint ventures. In particular, a management team, which emphasizes efficiency and quick response positively, exerts on the performance of entire companies. Thus, this study suggests that the top management team has to stress the operating competencies among team members so as to increase capabilities in information collection and responses to changes from external environments. It is evidenced that the TMT’s management style also affects organizational learning. When international joint ventures tend to adopt the organizational learning model that leads to actualization of vision, their performance is expected to be higher than those that fail to do so. Therefore, the research proposes that members of TMT should openly articulate the vision blueprint to their associates so as to increase their willingness and capability in learning.
Because of limited cases, this study faces the threat of external validity. The propositions drawn from literature and comparative studies are only applied to international joint ventures initiated in Taiwan, not to any other ventures in other countries. Obviously, the statements showing relations between variables are tentative and await further testing and verification.
This study has made two contributions to the literature of management of international joint ventures; namely: first, it adds a knowledge view of IJVs; second, it investigates knowledge creation and innovation within IJVs from the top management perspective. With respect to the contribution to management practices, the study proposes a decision-making framework of knowledge creation and innovation for managers of IJVs. Further, this research suggests that the operations of IJVs should consider cultural differences in building a knowledge-sharing platform, which facilitates knowledge exchange and learning, to enhance competitive advantages of the unified transnationals.
Although the research topic reflects the emerging research stream in managing knowledge across cultures and fills the research gaps, this study is not without limitations as stated earlier. The study has striven to conduct everything possible (from literature review to research design) to ensure an acceptable level of validity and reliability. Apparently, the proposed research framework and accompanied propositions can be further verified. Moreover, together with more IJVs from various industries, more composed by different country combinations, and more launches in other countries, the future study can derive a more generalized research framework from these comparative studies.

並列關鍵字

ba ； INNOVATION ； KNOWLEDGE CREATION ； ORGANIZATIONAL LEARNING ； TOP MANAGEMENT TEAM PERSPECTIVE

參考文獻

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