ABSTRACT
Holden, Harald and Kortzfleisch argue that concepts from linguistic translation research provide useful analogies that may be used to understand the nature of the transfer of knowledge between cross-cultural teams. Holden et al. first introduce a number of insights from linguistic translation theory which they think may inform knowledge transfer research focusing on knowledge transfer between cross-cultural teams. Based on an example, Holden et al. show that contextual (and thus cultural) knowledge is critical to understanding a translation and solving problems related to its ambiguity. The model theorizes the factors that influence knowledge translation processes when knowledge moves between cross-cultural teams. Moreover, the knowledge translation process is influenced by the translatability and convertibility of the knowledge that is being translated. The convertibility of the knowledge will depend on whether domain experts/translators as well as other receiving team/group members find it useful and choose to implement it.
