Taking the rough with the smooth : a qualitative inquiry into social and cultural practices of knowledge-sharing work in international consultancy alliances

Aslam, Muhammad Shakeel and O'Reilly, Dermot and Shah, Uzair (2023) Taking the rough with the smooth : a qualitative inquiry into social and cultural practices of knowledge-sharing work in international consultancy alliances. International Business Review, 32 (4): 102081. ISSN 0969-5931

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Abstract

Knowledge sharing in inter-organizational alliances has been predominantly studied by investigating causal influencing factors in tightly-coupled alliances. In contrast, we empirically study how individuals accomplish knowledge sharing activities in the context of various social and cultural differences within a loosely-coupled international business-consultancy alliance. Through an in-depth qualitative case-study approach, we find that the local knowledge-seeking and -accessing partners socially and culturally deal with various influencing factors, through two broad sets of ‘knowledge-sharing work’. This includes harmonization development work, and disharmony mitigation work, that are both supported through an accompanying mode of work: auto-learning. These forms of work at the micro (individual and interactional) level, are enabled through modes of communicative interaction, not just strategic action. Further, this work mediates between the influencing factors and the knowledge sharing of the alliances in an iterative and recursive manner. Our findings thus contribute to showing how knowledge sharing is enacted in inter-organizational alliances, by highlighting the significance and dynamics of the micro-level social and cultural practices of knowledge-sharing work.

Item Type:
Journal Article
Journal or Publication Title:
International Business Review
Additional Information:
This is the author’s version of a work that was accepted for publication in International Business Review. Changes resulting from the publishing process, such as peer review, editing, corrections, structural formatting, and other quality control mechanisms may not be reflected in this document. Changes may have been made to this work since it was submitted for publication. A definitive version was subsequently published in International Business Review, 32 (4) 102081, 07/12/2022 DOI: 10.1016/j.ibusrev.2022.102081
Uncontrolled Keywords:
/dk/atira/pure/subjectarea/asjc/1400/1406
Subjects:
?? knowledge-sharing workcommunicative interactioninter-organizational allianceloosely coupled partnershipengineering consultancyinternational businessdeveloping countryqualitative researchmarketingbusiness and international managementfinance ??
ID Code:
180649
Deposited By:
Deposited On:
05 Dec 2022 14:05
Refereed?:
Yes
Published?:
Published
Last Modified:
11 Aug 2024 00:38