Structure of information in a multinational corporation : A case study at Volvo Construction Equipment

Abstract: Problem: Volvo CE is on a global level responsible to issue the warranty user manual with terms & conditions (from here on referred to as T&C) for the Volvo CE group. There are regional deviations to the global T&C in order to fulfil legal or commercial requirements in respective region. Volvo CE on the global level are authorised to manage that decided processes and T&C are followed and if not drive actions to close the gap between global and regional deviations. Volvo CE would like to examine the possibility to have one source of document describing the T&C, all regional documents should direct back to this source which means that the global document must cover regional deviations to the global T&C. Today there is no control on the information available in the different regions. Purpose: Examine the coherence between Volvo CE T&C documentation on global level and the regional level. By this study we aim to contribute to the research on international MNCs by elucidating the efficiency by which such a firm can handle knowledge flows between the headquarter its subsidiaries and dealers. Method: The report is based on secondary data research and empirical studies conducted via qualitative interviews with key persons in the Volvo group and mapping current document situation both on global and regional level. The starting point for this paper is an interview with Volvo CE and Manager Global Warranty Common Lynn Edberg. Conclusion: We have found that Volvo CE utilizes a lot of modern technique to spread explicit knowledge within the organization and out to dealers. The Achilles heel is that there is no consolidated information base including both global and regional T&C for easy internal access. To also increase efficiency on ontological knowledge sharing, regions and global need to meet in committees just as being done for global T&C updates.