The influence of market and cultural environmental factors on technology transfer between foreign MNCs and local subsidiaries: A Croatian illustration

Technology transfer from multinational corporations to local subsidiaries is essential for successful local market operations. In this study, the environment-strategy-performance framework is used to investigate the effects of market and cultural environmental factors on international technology transfer, and resultant performance. The relative influence of two factors of the market environment, i.e., competitive intensity and market dynamism, and the relative influence of two factors of the cultural environment, i.e., national cultural distance and organizational cultural distance, are examined. The results of a survey of 131 managers of subsidiaries of foreign multinational corporations indicate the direct effects of market and cultural environmental factors on international technology transfer, with market dynamism found to be a more influential market environmental factor than competitive intensity and organizational cultural distance found to be a more influential cultural environmental factor than national cultural distance. Further, a significant positive relationship between technology transfer and subsidiary performance was found. Theoretical and practitioner implications are discussed. (c) 2006 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.