回任人员职业成长、情感承诺与知识转移的关系

The Relationships among Repatriates' Career Growth,Affective Commitment and Knowledge Transfer

为了探讨回任人员职业成长对知识转移的影响机理,本文构建了回任人员职业成长、情感承诺与知识转移的关系模型,识别了情感承诺与知识转移关系中的调节变量,即转移机会。对六个城市的26家跨国公司进行了问卷调查,得到162份有效问卷。多元层次回归分析结果表明,升职速率、报酬增长、业务能力进步和网络能力发展对知识转移有显著的正向影响;情感承诺在报酬增长、业务能力进步、网络能力发展与知识转移之间起着完全中介作用,而在升职速率与知识转移之间起着部分中介作用;转移机会正向调节情感承诺与知识转移之间的关系。

Developing, transferring, and exploiting knowledge is vital to the success of Multinational Corporations in global markets. Especially, the success of repatriates＇ knowledge transfer is very important for the construction of the parent company＇s core competitive advantage. Repatriates can be defined as employees or managers who return to their parent companies when they complete their international assignments, and they play an important role in transferring international knowledge to parent company. Employees can acquire abroad knowledge through expatriation, and transfer the knowledge to the organiza- tion when they are repatriated. The international knowledge includes knowledge related to foreign cultures, foreign markets, products, and customers etc. If this knowledge can be transferred effectively to the parent company, it will make headquarters get a better comprehension of international operations, fill knowledge base gap of the parent com- pany, and consequently help create international competitive advantage for the parent company. Hence, it is necessa- ry for us to investigate the knowledge transfer mechanism of repatriates. Previous studies have investigated the relationship between career growth and affective commitment, and the re- lationship between affective commitment and knowledge transfer. However, the effect of career growth on the repatri- ates＇ knowledge transfer has not been studied directly. This research focuses on the influence mechanism of repatri- ates＇ career growth on knowledge transfer. A relational model is established to interpret the relationships among re- patriates＇ career growth, affective commitment and knowledge transfer. The model also includes an important varia- ble, transfer opportunities, which mediate the relationship between affective commitment and knowledge trans- fer. Based on the literature review, hypotheses are put forward. In order to test the hypotheses,26 Multinational Cor- porations in six developed cities are investigated ,and the 162 valid questionnaires are collected. Some interesting re- sults are obtained through multiple hierarchical regression analysis. The results are as follows ： （ 1 ） Four factors of career growth, namely promotion speed, remuneration growth, business ability progress, and network ability develop- mqnt, have significant positive effects on knowledge transfer; （2） Affective commitment has a complete intermediar- y （fffect on the relationship between remuneration growth and knowledge transfer, the relationship between business ability progress and knowledge transfer, and the relationship between network ability development and knowledge transfer; （3）Affective commitment also has a partial intermediary effect on the relationship between promotion speed and knowledge transfer; and （4） Transfer opportunities have positive regulatory on the relationship between affective commitment and knowledge transfer. ~There are several theoretical contributions in this study. Firstly, the positive effect of the career growth on the success of repatriates＇ knowledge transfer is confirmed. Secondly, the concept of career growth is refined, and it is proved that four factors of career growth have significant positive impacts on repatriates＇ knowledge transfer. Thirdly, it is shown that affective commitment plays an intermediary role in the relationship between the ca- reer growth and knowledge transfer. And finally, it is pointed out that transfer opportunities moderate the relationship between affective commitment and repatriates＇ knowledge transfer success. This research also has important practical implications. To facilitate repatriates＇ knowledge transfer ,practition- ers could utilize these results to improve the successful possibility of repatriates＇ knowledge transfer in their parent companies. First, managers should make efforts to enhance repatriates ＇ affective commitment to the organization. Second, managers should try to satisfy the repatriates＇ aspiration to promote their career growth quickly. In the end, managers should provide or create more opportunities for repatriates＇ knowledge transfer.