Distributed capabilities: Intra-firm technology transfer inside BICC cables

For technology-based multinational companies combinations of their internal businesses and other partner organisations produce an increasing proportion of their innovations. Hence firms now have to manage their knowledge base by mobilising a wider array of 'technological capabilities' than ever previously. This article highlights the increasing challenges of intra-firm technology transfer faced by companies that have multiple plants in different countries and serve different national markets. Empirical findings from two innovation case studies presented here show how BICC, a major UK-based MNC, transferred a technology package that provides a retrofit service to install optical-fibre (telecommunication) cables onto existing overhead power cable lines. The article attempts to demonstrate how this form of technology transfer is successfully managed within an MNC environment by bringing together distributed capabilities from different knowledge backgrounds in market-driven R&D projects. The technological innovation described in this article could actually be viewed as a process of developing a technology package further, so that the marketing needs of UK and Italian utilities can be adequately met.