The accomplishment of research about the knowledge transfer process in the multinational companies is not recent. The first studies on the subject date from the decade of 60, originating first theoretical chains about the knowledge transfer, and the methods of coordination of its process, since its creation until the sharing. The research on the subject multiplied, extending the focus and evidencing variables that influence the process of the knowledge management, starting to search the factors that determine the effectiveness of the knowledge transfer (Zander and Kogut, 1995; Spender, 1996). Some factors had been pointed out as most important in this process. Among them are factors as the absorptive capability, the tacitness of the knowledge, the relations of the power and the behavioral and social variables. These factors influence on the design of the patterns of the management process of sharing knowledge and define strategies adopted by the multinational companies to lead the process of the knowledge management worldwide. The studies about the process of knowledge transfer focused, initially, upon the transmission and the sharing of the knowledge from the headquarters to the subsidiary. This approach was justified by the importance of the headquarters in the process of internationalization; it owned the power and, in the majority of the cases, the superiority in knowledge, technology and management, thus looking for replicating the model in the subsidiary. Recently subsidiaries developed their own capabilities or, in some situations, these had been acquired on the base of their previous experience and knowledge, increasing their importance and power inside the corporation, implying in a larger participation of them in the development of products and technology. Few studies are dedicated to the search for the variables associated to the process of knowledge transfer, in the scope of the multinational companies, combined to the characteristics of the knowledge, its dimensions and origins. It can be assumed, from the contributions of Tsoukas (1996), Spender and Grant (1996), Grant (1996) and Simonin (2004) that the influence of the different variables, the motivational, social, cultural and politic nature, on the knowledge transfer, in accordance with the characteristics of the knowledge, its dimension and its origin performs differently on the basis of its variability, influencing the form of acquisition, absorption, register and sharing of the knowledge. Firstly, this paper aims to identify, from the literature of management and knowledge transfer, dimensions associated to the process of knowledge transfer in R&D departments in multinational companies, on the basis of the characteristic of the knowledge in R&D. Then, with the objective of exploring more the subject, a study of multiple cases in the Brazilian subsidiaries of multinational corporations, manufacturers of machines and equipment was carried through. These cases shows knowledge transference between Brazilian subsidiaries with American and German Arabian headquarters and with Saudi Arabian subsidiaries.
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