A multi-level investigation of international marketing projects: The roles of experiential knowledge and creativity on performance

This study, using a sample of Korean multinational corporations, focuses on testing the relationships between the constructs of experiential knowledge, creativity, and performance in the context of international marketing projects. Relying on a multi-level conceptualization of experiential knowledge and creativity, our findings suggest that process-based creativity is enhanced when the team members have a higher level of experiential knowledge, but outcome-based creativity is not significantly influenced by either team- or firm-level experiential knowledge. It is concluded that, in the context of international marketing projects, the domain-relevant knowledge of the actors (i.e., the team-level experiential knowledge in the foreign markets) largely governs the level of their process-based creativity. The findings also suggest that project performance is directly influenced by firm-level experiential knowledge and process-based creativity, and is indirectly influenced by team-level experiential knowledge through the mediation of process-based creativity.