최근 다국적기업의 경쟁우위 창출에 있어 해외자회사의 역할이 중요시 되면서 상대적으로 부족했던 해외자회사의 현지시장에서의 지식획득에 관한 논의가 점차적으로 주목을 받고 있다. 따라서 본 연구는 해외자회사의 시장지향성, 현지시장 지식획득, 그리고 자회사 성과와의 관계를 규명하고자 하였다. 즉, 해외자회사가 시장지향성 조직문화를 통해 구축할 수 있는 현지시장 지식획득의 영향요인으로 해외자회사 잠재적 흡수능력, 현지국 관계적 체화성, 그리고 해외자회사의 학습경험을 고려하였다. 또한 이렇게 획득된 현지 시장지식이 자회사의 성과에 영향을 미치는데 있어 자회사의 실현적 흡수능력의 조절효과를 살펴보고자 하였다. 이를 위해 한국에 진출한 253개의 다국적기업 해외자회사를 대상으로 조사를 하였으며, AMOS(7.0 version)과 SPSS(15.0 version)을 사용하여 수집된 자료를 분석하였다. 그 결과 해외자회사의 시장지향성은 자회사의 잠재적 흡수능력, 현지국 관계적 체화성, 그리고 자회사 학습경험 모두에 유의한 영향을 미쳤고, 현지국 관계적 체화성, 자회사 학습경험은 자회사의 잠재적 흡수능력에 긍정적인 영향을 미치는 것으로 확인되었다. 반면 앞선 세 요인들과 현지시장 지식획득 간의 관계에 있어서는 해외자회사의 잠재적 흡수능력만이 긍정적인 영향을 미침을 확인하였다. 또한 해외자회사 현지시장 지식획득은 자회사 성과에 긍정적인 영향을 미쳤으며, 이들의 관계에 있어 자회사의 실현적 흡수능력이 조절효과가 있음을 확인하였다.
In response to an increased need of balancing pressures for global integration and local responsiveness, foreign subsidiaries are demanded to play a prominent role in creating and transferring knowledge, valuable for the multinational corporation (MNC). In this context, a key managerial problem pertains to identifying the relationship between local market knowledge acquisition of foreign subsidairy and performance. If companies want to acquire local market knowledge, they should precede market orientation. Especially, foreign subsidiary that takes charge of business activities in unfamiliar environment has to obtain various factors to acquire local market knowledge. Prior to this, it’s most important that companies construct organizational culture which leads them to fully understand the desire of local customers and the strategy for the local market. This study is to examine that the market orientation of foreign subsidiary influences on the local market knowledge acquisition and performance of foreign subsidiary through variables of the potential absorptive capacity of foreign subsidiary, the local relational embeddedness, and the learning experience of foreign subsidiary. Also this study identify the moderating effect of realized absorptive capacity between the local market knowledge acquisition and performance of foreign subsidiary.
For a more realistic approach the data was collected from foreign subsidiaries in South Korea. 253 samples were used for this analysis with AMOS (7.0 version) and SPSS (15.0 version). Collected samples were tested by factor analysis and Cronbach’s Alpha coefficients and were found to be satisfactory in terms of validity and reliability. Furthermore, fitness of the measurement model was tested by using confirmatory factor analysis and fitness of the model for hypothesis testing was adequate on various goodness of fit indices. There are following empirical results. First, the market orientation of foreign subsidiary has a significant effect on the potential absorptive capacity of foreign subsidiary, the local relational embeddedness, and the learning experience of foreign subsidiary. Second, the local relational embeddedness, and the learning experience of foreign subsidiary have an effect on the potential absorptive capacity of foreign subsidiary, Third, the potential absorptive capacity of foreign subsidiary only play a significant role on the local market knowledge acquisition. Finally, the realized absorptive capacity play a significant role in moderating between the local market knowledge acquisition and performance of foreign subsidiary.
Even though this study tried hard to provide meaningful results and implications, there still are some limitations. First, since we had selected foreign subsidiaries as subjects of the analysis, we only chose the ones that run their business only in Korea. Thus, it may not be appropriate to argue that the result of this study can be applied to other countries, because of different cultures and systems. Second, this study put restraints on the subjects of the analysis by selecting only foreign subsidiaries of MNCs currently operating production and sales in Korea. Accordingly, it is hard to say that the result of this study can be adapted to other subsidiaries which were established under different purposes such research and development or resource development. Finally, since we only got the response from one personnel per each corporation, the result of the analysis can be biased by subjectivity of the respondent. In other words, the problem of common method bias can occur. To settle those problems, further studies could use the second source added to questionnaire to minimize such problem, for example, getting a multiple response from one subsidiary, or using more objective measurements such as an introduction rate of technology acquired in local market in measuring the level of local market knowledge acquisition.