From the Colony to the Corporation Studying Knowledge Transfer Across International Boundaries

In this article, the authors empirically study the transfer of knowledge across international boundaries through a case study. Using data from field-based research in India, they comment on the similarities between the encounter between a multinational corporation (MNC) and its contractor located in the third world and older relationships between institutions in the era of colonialism. The authors contend that even though the MNC was able in this case to appropriate a value-creating process from its contractor over the short term, its actions are still potentially counterproductive in the long run. They analyze this episode of knowledge transfer using the theoretical constructs of signification and hegemony, where dominant social groups seek to manufacture the consent of subordinate groups, an act that often remains incomplete and contested.