The Effects of Political Ties and Organizational Distance in Chinese MNCs on Knowledge Acquisition

From the ‘springboard perspective’, Chinese multinationals are assumed to make knowledge-seeking overseas investments. These investments should be followed by headquarters demands for knowledge transfer from their subsidiaries, particularly those located in advanced markets and running R&D activities, but that is not always the case. Acknowledging political influence as an important unique aspect of emerging-countries organizations, this study is set to generate new knowledge on what drives HQ demand for subsidiary knowledge transfer in Chinese multinationals. Based on the survey data of 128 headquarters-subsidiary dyadic relationships within 80 Chinese multinationals, our findings indicate specifically that political ties of Chinese headquarters enhance organizational distance between home- and host- organizations, which triggers higher demand of knowledge from subsidiaries by headquarters. But, by showing how subsidiary willingness to transfer knowledge (the voice of subsidiaries) is an important driver...