2020 Volume 12 Issue 2 Pages 19-33
This research examines the effects of international horizontal transfer of production technology systems on engineers and operators who provide technological training. A production technology system is defined here as one that represents a combination or macrocosm of various production technology elements.
Previous studies on technology transfers reveal that the main mode of international transfer of production technology systems was vertical, from parent factories in Japan to their subsidiaries overseas. However, in recent years, there has been an increase in international horizontal transfer of production technology systems, in which an overseas factory trains another subsidiary in a different country.
This study developed the following two propositions: whether technical guidance can positively affect the development of (1) human skill and (2) conceptual skill, of engineers and operators as trainers in international horizontal transfer of production technology systems. These propositions are verified through exploratory case studies of two Japanese multinational manufacturers.
Consequently, it was revealed that technical guidance directly contributes to fostering both human and conceptual skills of engineers and operators who provide the training. Moreover, technical guidance may indirectly contribute in particular to the development of conceptual skill, through the explicitness of production technology systems.
These findings provide new theoretical angles with which to consider who can best teach and create organizational knowledge, who can instruct and grow the most, and what kind of relationship between the trainer and the teaching material can most effectively nurture the trainer.
However, these are the case study results of just two Japanese multinational manufacturers, and their external validity is not necessarily high. In addition, they may be overlooking other important control variables. Therefore, this author would like to examine in future this study’s validity by quantitatively reverifying its propositions with large-scale samples while controlling other significant variables.
