Global Ideas; Using it platforms for idea sharing in MNCs

Abstract

Ideas are the basis of what can lead to innovation, where the latter is crucial to obtain and sustain competitive advantage. MNCs have the possibility to internally connect globally diverse knowledge to create ideas through organisation-wide collaboration. However, MNCs experience difficulties with sharing ideas internally. IT platforms have been presented as a solution, but have received limited attention in previous research, therefore this study explores the interdisciplinary gap of the two fields, MNCs knowledge sharing and IT platforms. This qualitative study aims to increase the understanding of how IT platforms can be used for sharing ideas in the daily operations within an MNC, where the platforms are available to all employees. The findings show that IT platforms can be used as wikis, suggestion boxes, social media platforms and Q&As for sharing ideas in the daily operations. This study identifies the use of the IT platforms and the elements that affect the use, without providing best practice recommendations. However, the use of these platforms in MNCs is impacted by elements related to knowledge sharing barriers for MNCs as well as the support mechanisms needed for IT platforms. Finally, the result of this study implies that MNCs can use the four explored IT platforms for sharing ideas in a variety of ways, e.g. from creating discussions for ideas, to having standardised forms for idea sharing.