Trans-specialization understanding in international technology alliances: The influence of cultural distance

What is it about?

In the mobile device sector, specialist hardware and software firms work together effectively, despite being geographically and culturally separated. We find in our analysis of 110 international technology alliances that the key mechanism that supports the productive collaboration is the development of ‘trans-specialization understanding (TSU)’. This is understood as a managerial ‘meta-knowledge’ that is related to the ability to combine dispersed knowledge, or as suggested by Postrel 2002, ‘islands of shared knowledge in a sea of mutual ignorance’.

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Why is it important?

The international business literature has established rather firmly that cultural distance is a hindrance when culturally and geographically separated alliance partners are concerned. Contrastingly, this research highlights that cultural distance does not directly impact on the development of trans-specialization understanding (TSU) and ‘friction’ may be a better metaphor to capture cultural distance in high technology context. Specifically, in the presence of high modularity, the process of generating TSU may ‘outflank’ partner diversities, including cultural distance.

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