thesis_Daniela Noethen_print final - Jacobs University

ecipient in separation, but also the interplay of the two agents’ characteristics to explain
knowledge transfer.
5.1.3. Influences at multiple levels
One of the core techniques applied in the present dissertation is multilevel analysis, enabling
the simultaneous consideration of independent variables at different organizational levels. The
results of the different papers emphasize that such an approach is important; they clearly
showed that knowledge transfer was significantly influenced not only by dyadic or individual
level variables, but also by team or context factors. For example, in all three papers, team
level predictors like job autonomy (paper one), age diversity (paper two), and intragroup trust
(paper three) had a significant effect on knowledge transfer. In paper two, it was even
predictors at three rather than just two levels that have been shown to exert an influence.
These results markedly strengthen the arguments presented in paper one: individual
knowledge transfer occurs in a multifaceted context by which it is influenced in many ways,
and, accordingly, this context has to be taken into account when knowledge transfer is
investigated. In a similar vein, Foss, Husted, and Michailova (2010) put forth that for reliable
explanations of organizational level knowledge transfer, micro, i.e., individual level,
constructs have to be taken into account. Taken together, this is a strong call for multilevel
analysis in any type of future knowledge transfer research – no matter if the unit of analysis is
at the dyadic, the individual, or a higher level.
5.2. Limitations
Just as the single papers have certain limitations, so does the dissertation as a whole. Some of
these limitations have already been mentioned in the respective chapters, others arise upon the
inspection of the interplay of the three articles and with respect to the overall research
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