Global Best Practice Transfer : The strive for Legitimacy

Sammanfattning: The research topic for this thesis is the transfer of best practice from a MNC to a subsidiary during the pre-implementation phase of an ERP system. A lot is written about best practice transfer but there is a call for more research on how the implementation is perceived from a subsidiary perspective. This study wishes to contribute to the literature in the intersection between knowledge transfer and legitimacy within MNCs. In order to do so, this thesis was conducted through a qualitative case study and data was mainly collected through semi-structured interviews. Based on the literature review five factors were identified that can affect the best practice transfer Furthermore, the potential effect of legitimacy related to the knowledge transfer was investigated. The thesis resulted in the classification of indirect and direct factors that affect the transfer of best practices in an MNC and their impact on knowledge implementation and the increase of internal legitimacy for a subsidiary. Moreover, a relationship between knowledge and legitimacy was observed. An interesting finding that calls for more research was the facilitating effects of internal audits on the knowledge transfer.