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The Decentering of the Global Firm

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  • Mihir A. Desai

Abstract

This paper describes recent changes in the relationship between firms and nation states. Firms are typically linked to the nation in which they began and are considered to have fixed national identities. While firms have reallocated various activities around the world in response to value creation opportunities, they have largely retained their national identities and their headquarter activities have remained bundled in their home countries. This characterisation is increasingly tenuous. Firms are redefining their homes by unbundling their headquarters functions and reallocating them opportunistically across nations. A firm’s legal home, its financial home and its homes for managerial talent no longer need to be co‐located and, consequently, the idea of firms as national actors rooted in their home countries is rapidly becoming outdated. The implications for policymakers and researchers are outlined.

Suggested Citation

  • Mihir A. Desai, 2009. "The Decentering of the Global Firm," The World Economy, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 32(9), pages 1271-1290, September.
    • Handle: RePEc:bla:worlde:v:32:y:2009:i:9:p:1271-1290
    DOI: 10.1111/j.1467-9701.2009.01212.x
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    1. Desai, Mihir A. & Hines, James R. Jr., 2004. "Old Rules and New Realities: Corporate Tax Policy in a Global Setting," National Tax Journal, National Tax Association;National Tax Journal, vol. 57(4), pages 937-960, December.
    2. Tyson, Laura D' Andrea, 1991. "They Are Not Us: Why American Ownership Still Matters," UCAIS Berkeley Roundtable on the International Economy, Working Paper Series qt63k3x1r7, UCAIS Berkeley Roundtable on the International Economy, UC Berkeley.
    3. Desai, Mihir A. & Hines, James R. Jr., 2003. "Evaluating International Tax Reform," National Tax Journal, National Tax Association;National Tax Journal, vol. 56(3), pages 487-502, September.
    4. Desai, Mihir A. & Hines, James R. Jr., 2002. "Expectations and Expatriations: Tracing the Causes and Consequences of Corporate Inversions," National Tax Journal, National Tax Association;National Tax Journal, vol. 55(3), pages 409-440, September.
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    1. Kostova, Tatiana & Marano, Valentina & Tallman, Stephen, 2016. "Headquarters–subsidiary relationships in MNCs: Fifty years of evolving research," Journal of World Business, Elsevier, vol. 51(1), pages 176-184.
    2. Laura Alfaro & Ester Faia & Ruth Judson & Tim Schmidt-Eisenlohr, 2020. "Elusive Safety: The New Geography of Capital Flows and Risk," CESifo Working Paper Series 8249, CESifo.
    3. Dyreng, Scott D. & Lindsey, Bradley P. & Thornock, Jacob R., 2013. "Exploring the role Delaware plays as a domestic tax haven," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 108(3), pages 751-772.
    4. René Belderbos & Helen S. Du & Anthony Goerzen, 2017. "Global Cities, Connectivity, and the Location Choice of MNC Regional Headquarters," Journal of Management Studies, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 54(8), pages 1271-1302, December.
    5. Benoit Decreton & Henrik Dellestrand & Philip Kappen & Phillip C. Nell, 2017. "Beyond Simple Configurations: The Dual Involvement of Divisional and Corporate Headquarters in Subsidiary Innovation Activities in Multibusiness Firms," Management International Review, Springer, vol. 57(6), pages 855-878, December.
    6. Pla-Barber, José & Botella-Andreu, Ana & Villar, Cristina, 2021. "Intermediate units in multinational corporations: A resource dependency view on coordinative versus entrepreneurial roles," International Business Review, Elsevier, vol. 30(1).
    7. Ronen Peter Palan, 2020. "An evolutionary approach to international political economy: the case of corporate tax avoidance," Review of Evolutionary Political Economy, Springer, vol. 1(2), pages 161-182, August.
    8. T. J. Atwood & Christina Lewellen, 2019. "The Complementarity between Tax Avoidance and Manager Diversion: Evidence from Tax Haven Firms," Contemporary Accounting Research, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 36(1), pages 259-294, March.
    9. Frantz, Pascal & Instefjord, Norvald, 2018. "Regulatory competition and rules/principles-based regulation," LSE Research Online Documents on Economics 87301, London School of Economics and Political Science, LSE Library.
    10. Deschryvere, Matthias, 2009. "Mobility of Corporate Headquarter Functions: A Literature Review," Discussion Papers 1203, The Research Institute of the Finnish Economy.
    11. Ana Botella Andreu & Katiuscia Lavoratori, 2022. "History Matters: Colonial-Based Connectivity and Foreign Headquarter Location Choice," Management International Review, Springer, vol. 62(5), pages 711-739, October.
    12. Phillip C. Nell & Philip Kappen & Tomi Laamanen, 2017. "Reconceptualising Hierarchies: The Disaggregation and Dispersion of Headquarters in Multinational Corporations," Journal of Management Studies, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 54(8), pages 1121-1143, December.
    13. Arjen H. L. Slangen & Marc Baaij & Riccardo Valboni, 2017. "Disaggregating the Corporate Headquarters: Investor Reactions to Inversion Announcements by US Firms," Journal of Management Studies, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 54(8), pages 1241-1270, December.
    14. Sven Kunisch & Markus Menz & David Collis, 2020. "Corporate headquarters in the twenty-first century: an organization design perspective," Journal of Organization Design, Springer;Organizational Design Community, vol. 9(1), pages 1-32, December.
    15. repec:hig:wpaper:38man2015 is not listed on IDEAS
    16. Tsai Chang-hsien, 2011. "International Jurisdictional Competition under Globalization: From the U.S. Regulation of Foreign Private Issuers to Taiwan's Restrictions on Outward Investment in Mainland China," Asian Journal of Law and Economics, De Gruyter, vol. 2(1), pages 1-102, April.
    17. Kazuhiro Asakawa, 2020. "Disaggregating the headquarters: implications for overseas R&D subsidiaries’ reporting and the subsidiaries’ knowledge-sharing patterns," Journal of Organization Design, Springer;Organizational Design Community, vol. 9(1), pages 1-30, December.
    18. Hanlon, Michelle & Heitzman, Shane, 2010. "A review of tax research," Journal of Accounting and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 50(2-3), pages 127-178, December.
    19. Andreas Maurer & Christophe Degain, 2012. "Globalization And Trade Flows: What You See Is Not What You Get!," Journal of International Commerce, Economics and Policy (JICEP), World Scientific Publishing Co. Pte. Ltd., vol. 3(03), pages 1-27.
    20. Kunisch, Sven & Menz, Markus & Birkinshaw, Julian, 2019. "Spatially dispersed corporate headquarters: A historical analysis of their prevalence, antecedents, and consequences," International Business Review, Elsevier, vol. 28(1), pages 148-161.
    21. Christina M. Lewellen, 2023. "Tax haven incorporation and financial reporting transparency," Review of Accounting Studies, Springer, vol. 28(3), pages 1811-1855, September.
    22. Jones, Chris & Temouri, Yama & Cobham, Alex, 2018. "Tax haven networks and the role of the Big 4 accountancy firms," Journal of World Business, Elsevier, vol. 53(2), pages 177-193.

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