The perils of information - Evidences from a family MNC

What the reader of this work will see in the next pages is a Master Thesis in Management Engineering that want study knowledge management within the context of multinational family firms, focalizing effort on knowledge sharing perception gap – and its consequences – that can arise between multi-national companies’ headquarter and their branches dispersed all around the world.
Therefore, the dissertation will be focalized on three main research topics:
1. Knowledge;
2. International business;
3. Family firms.
The intersection of these three fields – as shown in figure 2 – represents the perception gaps studied.
After this brief introduction, the thesis will be split in chapters and paragraphs in order to introduce and analyse – both theoretically and practically – perception gap’s origins and evidences, surrounded by the internationalized family environment.
Virtually, the work has been divided into two big parts:
1. Quantitative research
It is represented by two sections. The first one – namely, the literature review chapter – tries to define the current state of art of scientific contributions about the three previously mentioned research topics, introducing the gap in the existing literature that can be covered by this master dissertation. On the other hand, an empirical chapter, in which – using statistical tools – I will try to answer to my proposed research questions, represents the second one.
2. Qualitative research
It is represented by a case study on SMI Group S.p.A. – a family firm located in San Giovanni Bianco (Bergamo) – worldwide leader in the packaging industry. The case will follow the guidelines suggested by the Babson College’s STEP project, an applied research project that aims to study successful transgenerational entrepreneurship practices within family firms. In addition, – thanks to an internship performed within the company’s HQ and in the Malaysian subsidiary as ERP analyst and technical trainer – principles of ethnography were applied in order to find “on the field” confirmations of academic theories.
In a first approach, within the optic of business communications, the term perception gap identifies a sort of knowledge asymmetry between two or more parties involved in a common industrial process. Roughly speaking, it can be exemplified as the gap of intentions between me, as “seller” of this dissertation, and you, the reader and “buyer” of the latter. Many reasons affect the degree of this gap. For the purpose of this work – when knowledge management is far from perfect – some distortions regarding reality can happen, generating consequences that can damage economic and social structure of an organization, which are mirrored in organization’s performances. These are (e.g., underestimation of organization’s capabilities, biased data, etc.) – quoting the famous Italian pollster Nando Pagnoncelli – the “Perils of information”, from which this work is baptized.
As for my bachelor degree thesis, I strongly wanted SMI Group as case study for my final master dissertation. This in order to highlight to academic and practitioner communities a sensational case of success above generations located in a geographical area that was not “lucky” over the last decade owing to an economic crisis that has obscured with its shadows of delocalization and eternal recession an entire population. Do not worry. This would be a story of prospect: all readers – especially youth ones as me – may be optimistic yet. Now, it is time to start…
“[…]‘cause the times they are a-changing!”