A study on the cultural competence and knowledge transfer of selected expatriates with the competitive advantage of their companies located in Metro Manila

• Main Authors: De Los Reyes, Saralou, Go, Andre Cullen, Ledesma, Denise Alexandra
• Format: text
• Language: English
• Published: Animo Repository 2013
• Subjects: Cultural competency; Intercultural communication; Business Administration, Management, and Operations
• Online Access: https://animorepository.dlsu.edu.ph/etd_bachelors/10480
• Institution: De La Salle University

The research objective was to find a relationship between selected expatriates cultural competence and knowledge transfer with their companies competitive advantage in terms of financial profitability. Competitive advantage in terms of financial profitability was measured by computing for the mean of financial ratios. Data for cultural competence and knowledge transfer was measured by scales answerable by a 4 point Likert scale. To gather respondents, a snowballing technique and referrals from the initial participant pool were utilized. A total of 50 expatriates from 22 companies participated in the research, and a correlation analysis was used to analyze results. P-values and Pearsons r coefficients were also interpreted to arrive at results. Results indicated that there was no significant relationship between all components of cultural competence and competitive advantage, and between knowledge access and communication as well as knowledge integration to competitive advantage. A significant relationship was found between management initiated processes and practices and competitive advantage. Given this, it was discussed and concluded that although expatriates can indeed contribute to competitive advantage, there are numerous factors in an organization that have to be developed alongside expatriate management for them to be able to do. Expatriate management cannot stand alone in contributing to competitive advantage. The unique business culture in the Philippines that could have also influenced results is also discussed. Overall, results can only be generalized to the sample that participated in the research because the research did not focus on a single industry, or a single company. The most noteworthy recommendations include increasing sample size and conducting a pilot study in order to come up with data that can be used to calculate the instruments Cronbach alpha that can be used to improve the instrument. Future areas of research include comparing Western and Asian expatriates, assessing expatriates’ workplace cultural difficulties conducting a case ii study that documents improvements in overall performance of an organization that has been employing expatriates, studying gender influenced differences expatriate experience, or to replicate this exact research with a different measure of competitive advantage and considering qualitative measures.