Mastering the art of knowledge management is the need of the hour and can help companies create a sustainable competitive advantage. Managing knowledge for competitive advantage requires dissemination of knowledge to other units and co-workers at the right time and in the right way. This paper deals with how the Indian MNCs manage to integrate repatriates’ knowledge and, more specifically, what mechanisms they use to integrate this knowledge. Though companies are reasonably good at acquiring knowledge, this resource is often wasted through ineffective dissemination and low levels of reuse. Knowledge-based theory of the firm emphasizes that the source of competitive advantage resides in the application of the knowledge rather than in the knowledge itself; however, the focus of past research has been skewed heavily towards the contribution aspect of knowledge sharing. Hence, this study develops a conceptual model to assess the knowledge-seeking aspect of knowledge-sharing environment and provides more analytical information needed for managers as to what actions are to be taken to garner more knowledge and develop a knowledge-seeking environment in the organization.

In a highly competitive global economy, capital, technology, raw materials and information are not the limiting factors to increasing globalization. The limiting factor is the caliber of the people in an organization. Competitive global economy requires business to have global leaders and an increased internationally skilled workforce to make the best use of all the available resources. Repatriates are the obvious choice of resources to help fulfill both the needs. Repatriates who have completed their international assignment can help establish and expand global company’s international business because they possess the actual information about the international market and understand how the company is perceived internationally. Repatriates have an irreplaceable role in organizational learning, given that they can accelerate the transfer of knowledge from host countries to headquarters, and vice versa. Repatriates also possess first-hand knowledge of particular cultures and can provide detailed information about specific markets. They also have a better understanding of the workings of corporate headquarters and overseas operations. This knowledge enhances their ability to recognize and evaluate global opportunities and threats. By sharing and transferring knowledge with the rest of the organization, repatriates enable companies to learn from their previous international experiences as well as gain new knowledge, which in turn will enhance the knowledge base of the whole MNC (Downes and Thomas, 1999). According to Haanes and Fjeldstad (2000) (52ff.), knowledge can be of specific importance to creating a competitive advantage if not only passively available but actively put into actions within the organization. This thought is also mirrored by Barney and Wright (1998) saying that resources need to be used to generate value (either by increasing sales or decreasing cost) in order to be strategic resources and resources which could possess these characteristics are repatriates; thus repatriates, individuals who have completed a global assignment, can be valuable resources for their organizations. Research has clearly indicated that the repatriation process is important for a company; bad repatriation leads to dissatisfaction and the risk of former repatriates quitting (Kamoche, 1997; Bolino, 2007; Jassawalla and Sashittal, 2009; and Mäkelä and Suutari, 2009). The company may risk losing valuable knowledge that is not turned into a company-wide asset. The learning, which the repatriates return with, is therefore largely wasted because it is not embedded into the organization (Jassawalla and Sashittal, 2009; and Wittig-Berman and Beutell, 2009). Some numbers could illustrate the seriousness of bad repatriation: an estimated 20% to 50% of repatriates are leaving the firm within a year of returning home (Jassawalla and Sashittal, 2009); one-fourth left the firm at the same time in the study of US expatriate managers undertaken by Black et al. (1999). In fact, international assignees often perceive that the jobs where they could best utilize their newly acquired competencies often reside outside their present employer (Mäkelä and Suutari, 2009; and Stahl et al., 2009).

Knowledge Management Journal, International Accounting Standards Board, Financial Accounting Standards Board, Generally Accepted Accounting Principles, GAAP, EXtensible Business Reporting Language, XBRL, Knowledge Accounting Components, Accounting System, GAAP Codification, Business Transactions, Public Administration Processes, Ontological Methods, Manufacturing Sectors, Financial Statements, Knowledge Acquisition, Information Systems.