Overcoming frictions in transnational knowledge flows: Challenges of connecting, sense-making and integrating

Abstract

The increasing interconnection of local, trans-local and transnational knowledge networks is the outcome of the coevolution of (i) knowledge centers, typically city regions, (ii) epistemic communities that are grounded in and connect these regions and (iii) firms, usually multinational enterprises (MNEs). This interaction has created opportunities for innovation, but it is also impeded by a range of frictions that arise in the process of integrating locally embedded knowledge from geographically dispersed and culturally disparate regions across different countries. This article develops a simple model of how such frictions that MNEs encounter in their knowledge internationalization process can be overcome through ongoing processes of connecting, sense-making and integrating.