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1. Introduction
Acquiring knowledge has been a key to developing sustainable competitive advantage (Danneels, 2008), which is especially important for firms in a changing environment (Gupta and Govindarajan, 2000; Kogut and Zander, 1992). Many firms have successfully acquired knowledge through cross-border mergers and acquisitions (M&As) (Ahuja and Katila, 2001; Casal and Fontela, 2007; Cloodt et al., 2006). Therefore, cross-border M&As have become an effective way for multinational corporations (MNCs) to obtain heterogeneous knowledge (Wang et al., 2017). Organizational unlearning is an important antecedent of knowledge transfer in the context of cross-border M&As (Wang et al., 2017; Yildiz and Fey, 2010) because it can help firms to eliminate outdated routines and knowledge, indicating a close relationship between routines and knowledge transfer. Hence, routines need to be considered especially when knowledge transfer may involve routine update across different cultural and institutional contexts for cross-border M&As (Wang et al., 2017). However, there seems to be a lack of knowledge on how organizational unlearning affects knowledge transfer from the perspective of organizational routines.
The routine-based view holds that routines represent the repetitive patterns of actual behaviors (Feldman and Pentland, 2003; Nelson and Winter, 1982). Routines are characterized by strong stability (Feldman, 2003). Some studies have indicated that routines have significant and positive effects on knowledge transfer in cross-border M&As (Ranucci and Souder, 2015). However, others hold the opposite view that some routines may become outdated and useless in the context of cross-border M&As (Wang et al., 2017; Yildiz and Fey, 2010). As a result, they may be accompanied by rigidity and inertia (Bloodgood, 2012; Collinson and Wilson, 2006; Ritala, 2013), therefore impairing knowledge transfer. These two lines of argument are contrary to each other, revealing an interesting question: Do routines facilitate or hinder knowledge transfer in the context of cross-border M&As?
This question challenges the taken-for-granted assumption about the relationship between unlearning and knowledge transfer as a process of eliminating dated routines while overlooking a more positive view about the integration of organizational routines. This overlooked view prompts us to extend the research of knowledge transfer in the cross-border M&A context with additional new insight, which remains our major motivation. We argue that only with a more comprehensive understanding of organizational routines and their...