Knowledge transfer and creation in international strategic alliances: a multi-level perspective

In practice, it is easy to observe a nested relationship between international strategic alliances and a company that covers international strategic alliances at the micro‐strategic alliance level and macro‐organisational level. To more precisely explore knowledge creation in international strategic alliances, this study explores the antecedents of both strategic alliance level and organisational level on knowledge creation. Empirical results show that knowledge transfer from the strategic alliance level has a positively significant impact on knowledge creation; at the organisational level, company scale, R&D intensity and business group scale have a positively significant effect on knowledge creation. In addition, both company scale and business group scale have a cross‐level moderating effect on the relationship between knowledge transfer and knowledge creation. This study provides a new research direction for knowledge transfer and creation in international alliances.