This study empirically investigated knowledge flows between MNC parents and subsidiaries in China and three conclusions were obtained. First, there are two-way knowledge flows between MNC parents and subsidiaries and conventional knowledge transfers are different from and more than reverse knowledge transfers. Second, the determinants of two-way knowledge flows are not the same. Conventional knowledge transfers are associated with the receivers' absorptive capacity and the relationships between the parents and subsidiaries, while reverse knowledge transfers are associated with knowledge relevance, subsidiaries' technological dependence on their parents and their capacity involved in knowledge activities. Third, according to related information, we inferred that the transfer logics of conventional knowledge transfer and reverse knowledge transfer within MNCs in China are different from the existing literatures, namely, the former is not a simple teaching process but rather a teaching process with the knowledge provider's intent and the receiver's recognition, while the latter is not a persuasive process as claimed by the other scholar, but a discovering and selective process dominated by MNC parents.
Key words
two-way knowledge flows /
conventional knowledge transfer /
reverse knowledge transfer /
transfer logic
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