The role of cultural factors on intra-firm technology transfer performance and corporate sustainability: A conceptual study

Technological innovations have emerged as crucially significant factor for sustaining market competition and
achieving sustainable competitive advantage in the 21st century. The Multinational Corporations (MNCs) as
celebrities of innovation play significant role in diffusing technological knowledge throughout firms both
nationally and internationally. Although numerous studies exist on technology transfer the majority of existing
literature addresses the issues related to inter-firm transfer of technology only while the area related to intra-firm
transfer of technology has been largely underexposed; study of which is believed to be ideal for fruitful
exploration of profitability in technology transfer projects. By exploring the existing relevant literature, the
current study would attempt to posit a new model in regards to the effect of host-country cultural environment on
the performance of technology transferred by the MNCs to their subsidiaries in Malaysia and its subsequent
impact on the corporate sustainability of the firm. In the present study the relative influence of two cultural
environment factors, namely national cultural distance and organizational cultural distance have been addressed
and the study is expected to contribute both theoretically in the body of knowledge and also in terms of practical
implication for policy makers of the host-country and the involved MNCs and hence enriching the existing
intra-firm technology transfer literature simultaneously.