Facilitating knowledge sharing in Russian and Chinese subsidiaries: the role of personal networks and group membership

The unprecedented escalation in the number of organizations that have decided to internationalize their operations in the last two decades, and the international movement of labor that has accompanied such expansion has meant that understanding the process of knowledge sharing within subsidiary operations has become an issue of increasing importance. Where the cultural distance between home and host nations is great, as it is between Western industrialized economies and the transition economies of the (former) Communist nations, there is even greater saliency for achieving effective knowledge sharing if its potential value for gaining organizational competitive advantage is to be harnessed. In examining knowledge sharing in Russia and China, this paper specifically addresses how group membership and personal networking in these countries facilitate and impede knowledge sharing. Ultimately, the paper provides important insights for Western managers about how to work with the national compositions to optimize knowledge sharing in their subsidiary operations in Russia and China.