IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/iburev/v6y1997i3p319-334.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Subsidiary influence on strategic behaviour in MNCs: an empirical study

Author

Listed:
  • Andersson, Ulf
  • Pahlberg, Cecilia

Abstract

A subsidiary in a multinational corporation (MNC) has assets in the form of specific relationships. It is argued that the subsidiary's network is of vital importance for the development of new products, production processes and for technological information in the subsidiary. The resources created in the subsidiary's network can, if they are needed by other units within the MNC, make it possible for the subsidiary to influence the strategic behaviour of the MNC. The empirical data presented are collected from 97 subsidiaries of 20 global divisions in Swedish MNCs, and we have interviewed over 300 managers. The 626 important relationships studied give support for the notion that they are of vital importance for technological development in the subsidiaries. The subsidiary's technological position is operationalised as the subsidiary's roles as giver and receiver of technological development in the MNC. The test provides support for the opinion that the more a subsidiary is a giver, the greater its possibilities to influence the strategic behaviour in the MNC.

Suggested Citation

  • Andersson, Ulf & Pahlberg, Cecilia, 1997. "Subsidiary influence on strategic behaviour in MNCs: an empirical study," International Business Review, Elsevier, vol. 6(3), pages 319-334, June.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:iburev:v:6:y:1997:i:3:p:319-334
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0969593197000061
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Gupta, Anil K. & Govindarajan, V., 1994. "Organizing for knowledge flows within MNCs," International Business Review, Elsevier, vol. 3(4), pages 443-457, December.
    2. W. Graham Astley & Edward J. Zajac, 1991. "Intraorganizational Power and Organizational Design: Reconciling Rational and Coalitional Models of Organization," Organization Science, INFORMS, vol. 2(4), pages 399-411, November.
    3. Sumantra Ghoshal & Christopher A Bartlett, 1988. "Creation, Adoption and Diffusion of Innovations by Subsidiaries of Multinational Corporations," Journal of International Business Studies, Palgrave Macmillan;Academy of International Business, vol. 19(3), pages 365-388, September.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Yamin, Mo. & Otto, Juliet, 2004. "Patterns of knowledge flows and MNE innovative performance," Journal of International Management, Elsevier, vol. 10(2), pages 239-258.
    2. Edward Gilmore & Ulf Andersson & Noushan Memar, . "How subsidiaries influence innovation in the MNE value chain," UNCTAD Transnational Corporations Journal, United Nations Conference on Trade and Development.
    3. Chen, Tain-Jy & Chen, Homin & Ku, Ying-Hua, 2012. "Resource dependency and parent–subsidiary capability transfers," Journal of World Business, Elsevier, vol. 47(2), pages 259-266.
    4. Ambos, Björn & Kunisch, Sven & Leicht-Deobald, Ulrich & Schulte Steinberg, Adrian, 2019. "Unravelling agency relations inside the MNC: The roles of socialization, goal conflicts and second principals in headquarters-subsidiary relationships," Journal of World Business, Elsevier, vol. 54(2), pages 67-81.
    5. Young, Stephen & Tavares, Ana Teresa, 2004. "Centralization and autonomy: back to the future," International Business Review, Elsevier, vol. 13(2), pages 215-237, April.
    6. Tina C. Ambos & Julian Birkinshaw, 2010. "Headquarters’ Attention and Its Effect on Subsidiary Performance," Management International Review, Springer, vol. 50(4), pages 449-469, August.
    7. Dimitratos, Pavlos & Liouka, Ioanna & Young, Stephen, 2009. "Regional location of multinational corporation subsidiaries and economic development contribution: Evidence from the UK," Journal of World Business, Elsevier, vol. 44(2), pages 180-191, April.
    8. Saeed Khanagha & Mohammad Taghi Ramezan Zadeh & Oli R. Mihalache & Henk W. Volberda, 2018. "Embracing Bewilderment: Responding to Technological Disruption in Heterogeneous Market Environments," Journal of Management Studies, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 55(7), pages 1079-1121, November.
    9. Andersson, Ulf & Forsgren, Mats & Pedersen, Torben, 1999. "The Mnc As A Differentiated Network: Subsidiary Technology Embeddedness And Performance," Working Papers 3-1999, Copenhagen Business School, Department of International Economics and Management.
    10. Mudambi, Ram & Pedersen, Torben & Andersson, Ulf, 2014. "How subsidiaries gain power in multinational corporations," Journal of World Business, Elsevier, vol. 49(1), pages 101-113.
    11. Miglierina Enrico & Molho Elena & Rocca Matteo, 2007. "A Morse-type index for critical points of vector functions," Economics and Quantitative Methods qf0702, Department of Economics, University of Insubria.
    12. Junshuai Cheng & Qaisar Iqbal & Guangmeng Ji & Weichun Li, 2022. "A Sustainable and Comprehensive Framework for Knowledge Transfer in MNCs: An Empirical Examination Based on Country, Company and Individual Levels of Chinese MNCs," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(21), pages 1-17, October.
    13. Dirk M. Boehe, 2010. "Captive Offshoring of New Product Development in Brazil," Management International Review, Springer, vol. 50(6), pages 747-773, December.
    14. Natalie Djodat & Dodo Knyphausen-Aufseß, 2017. "Revisiting Ghoshal and Bartlett’s Theory of the Multinational Corporation as an Interorganizational Network," Management International Review, Springer, vol. 57(3), pages 349-378, June.
    15. Lee, Hyoungjin & Chung, Chris Changwha & Beamish, Paul W., 2019. "Configurational characteristics of mandate portfolios and their impact on foreign subsidiary survival," Journal of World Business, Elsevier, vol. 54(5), pages 1-1.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Ciabuschi, Francesco & Dellestrand, Henrik & Kappen, Philip, 2012. "The good, the bad, and the ugly: Technology transfer competence, rent-seeking, and bargaining power," Journal of World Business, Elsevier, vol. 47(4), pages 664-674.
    2. Blomkvist, Katarina & Kappen, Philip & Zander, Ivo, 2017. "Gone are the creatures of yesteryear? On the diffusion of technological capabilities in the ‘modern’ MNC," Journal of World Business, Elsevier, vol. 52(1), pages 1-16.
    3. Urmas Varblane & Katrin M??nnik & Helena Hannula, 2005. "Autonomy and Performance of Foreign Subsidiaries in five Transition Countries," William Davidson Institute Working Papers Series wp780, William Davidson Institute at the University of Michigan.
    4. Villasalero, Manuel, 2017. "A resource-based analysis of realized knowledge relatedness in diversified firms," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 71(C), pages 114-124.
    5. Zeng, Rong & Grøgaard, Birgitte & Steel, Piers, 2018. "Complements or substitutes? A meta-analysis of the role of integration mechanisms for knowledge transfer in the MNE network," Journal of World Business, Elsevier, vol. 53(4), pages 415-432.
    6. BEUSELINCK, Christof & DELOOF, Marc & VANSTRAELEN, Ann, 2011. "Corporate governance and cash policies of multinational corporations," Working Papers 2011020, University of Antwerp, Faculty of Business and Economics.
    7. Julian Birkinshaw, 1999. "The Determinants and Consequences of Subsidiary Initiative in Multinational Corporations," Entrepreneurship Theory and Practice, , vol. 24(1), pages 9-36, October.
    8. Boehe, Dirk Michael, 2007. "Product development in MNC subsidiaries: Local linkages and global interdependencies," Journal of International Management, Elsevier, vol. 13(4), pages 488-512, December.
    9. Wang, Jue & Liu, Xiaming & Li, Xiaoying, 2009. "A dual-role typology of multinational subsidiaries," International Business Review, Elsevier, vol. 18(6), pages 578-591, December.
    10. McGuinness, Martina & Demirbag, Mehmet & Bandara, Sasanka, 2013. "Towards a multi-perspective model of reverse knowledge transfer in multinational enterprises: A case study of Coats plc," European Management Journal, Elsevier, vol. 31(2), pages 179-195.
    11. Martin Schulz, 2003. "Pathways of Relevance: Exploring Inflows of Knowledge into Subunits of Multinational Corporations," Organization Science, INFORMS, vol. 14(4), pages 440-459, August.
    12. Luciano Barin Cruz & Dirk Boehe, 2010. "How do Leading Retail MNCs Leverage CSR Globally? Insights from Brazil," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 91(2), pages 243-263, February.
    13. Harzing, Anne-Wil & Noorderhaven, Niels, 2006. "Knowledge flows in MNCs: An empirical test and extension of Gupta and Govindarajan's typology of subsidiary roles," International Business Review, Elsevier, vol. 15(3), pages 195-214, June.
    14. Birkinshaw, Julian & Hood, Neil & Young, Stephen, 2005. "Subsidiary entrepreneurship, internal and external competitive forces, and subsidiary performance," International Business Review, Elsevier, vol. 14(2), pages 227-248, April.
    15. L. Felipe Monteiro & Niklas Arvidsson & Julian Birkinshaw, 2008. "Knowledge Flows Within Multinational Corporations: Explaining Subsidiary Isolation and Its Performance Implications," Organization Science, INFORMS, vol. 19(1), pages 90-107, February.
    16. Persson, Magnus, 2006. "The impact of operational structure, lateral integrative mechanisms and control mechanisms on intra-MNE knowledge transfer," International Business Review, Elsevier, vol. 15(5), pages 547-569, October.
    17. Schmid, Stefan & Dzedek, Lars R. & Lehrer, Mark, 2014. "From Rocking the Boat to Wagging the Dog: A Literature Review of Subsidiary Initiative Research and Integrative Framework," Journal of International Management, Elsevier, vol. 20(2), pages 201-218.
    18. Chen, Chung-Jen & Hsiao, Yung-Chang & Chu, Mo-An, 2014. "Transfer mechanisms and knowledge transfer: The cooperative competency perspective," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 67(12), pages 2531-2541.
    19. Utz Schäffer & Matthias D. Mahlendorf & Jochen Rehring, 2014. "Does the Interactive Use of Headquarter Performance Measurement Systems in Foreign Subsidiaries Endanger the Potential to Profit from Local Relationships?," Australian Accounting Review, CPA Australia, vol. 24(1), pages 21-38, March.
    20. Florian Becker-Ritterspach & Christoph Dörrenbächer, 2011. "An Organizational Politics Perspective on Intra-firm Competition in Multinational Corporations," Management International Review, Springer, vol. 51(4), pages 533-559, August.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:eee:iburev:v:6:y:1997:i:3:p:319-334. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.elsevier.com/wps/find/journaldescription.cws_home/133/description#description .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.