The value-adding role of the corporate headquarters in innovation transfer processes : The issue of headquarters' knowledge situation

• The aim of this study is to investigate the value-adding role of corporatemonitoring and corporate involvement in ‘sticky’ inter-subsidiary innovationtransfer environments. The value added role of these two managerial approaches isviewed in terms of their impact on innovation transfer efficiency and effectiveness.Based on the network view of the MNC, our research builds on the notion that thecorporate headquarters (CHQ) is ill-informed and may suffer from a radicaluncertainty about what it actually knows and needs to know. By using a data samplecontaining 87 innovation transfer projects in 25 multinational companies, we test sixsets of hypotheses. Overall, our findings show that the value added of CHQ monitoringas well as an active CHQ involvement is considerably constrained. However,contrary to our expectations, the results show that CHQ monitoring gives rise to anincrease in both transfer efficiency and effectiveness when the ‘stickiness’ is basedon tangible resource constraints. The results imply that when it comes to CHQinvolvement during the innovation transfer processes, the choice between a handsoffand a hands-on approach has to be understood in the light of the CHQ’sknowledge situation.

Ämnesord

SAMHÄLLSVETENSKAP  -- Ekonomi och näringsliv -- Företagsekonomi (hsv//swe)

SOCIAL SCIENCES  -- Economics and Business -- Business Administration (hsv//eng)

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