How Do Ownership Type And Knowledge Transfer Influence Success Of Change? A Study Of Transition Economy Firms

Research Summary This paper investigates the joint effect of ownership type and knowledge transfer on success of change. For knowledge transfer, we include transfer of both tacit and codified knowledge, and for ownership type, we consider state owned, privately founded, and privatized firms. We argue that incentives and monitoring mechanisms will cause a given ownership type to moderate the direct effect of knowledge transfer on success of change. Using data from firms in four transition economy countries, we find that the relationship between knowledge transfer and success of change is stronger for state owned firms compared to privately founded and privatized firms. Managerial Summary The fundamental premise of this paper is that effectiveness of knowledge transfer in determining success of change is moderated by ownership type of a firm. We argue that state owned, privately founded, and privatized firms have distinct incentives and monitoring systems that will moderate the direct relationship between transfer of both tacit and codified knowledge on success of change. Our empirical analysis shows that state owned firms experience a stronger relationship between transfer of knowledge and success of change as compared to privately founded and privatized firms.