| 1. |
- Gorgijevski, Alexander N., 1991-
(författare)
-
Enter the Dragon : Toward a Micro-political View on Subsidiary Initiatives
- 2021
-
Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- Subsidiary initiatives are proactive, entrepreneurial activities that arise locally without central directives or planning from headquarters. Prior research suggests that subsidiary initiatives are crucial to multinational corporations’ (MNCs) success in foreign locations as they hold the potential to enhance local responsiveness, worldwide learning, and global integration by the leveraging of new knowledge. However, subsidiary-driven initiatives are often met with resistance in the corporate structure, by virtue of headquarters’ limited capacity to pay attention to all stimuli, initiative misalignment to the MNC, or overall self-interest-seeking behavior. Against this background, the MNC is conceptualized as a ‘politicized forum’ where subsidiary managers strategize initiatives upwards. Consequently, a micro-political process emerges from subsidiary managers’ proactive activities. The purpose of this thesis is to investigate the role of micro-politics play in earning headquarters approval of subsidiary initiatives and how these actions may lead to increased subsidiary influence in the MNC.The empirical material consists of proprietary survey and interview data on MNC subsidiaries in Sweden. The primary respondents and informants have been top subsidiary managers, seen as the senior directors of the subsidiary and the MNCs’ top representatives in the local environment. The empirical findings, triangulated through different methodological approaches, illustrate subsidiary initiatives as complex phenomenon. The study implies that headquarters’ approval of subsidiary initiatives is contingent on several key managerial activities, as well as relational- and contextual conditions. Overall, the results lend support for the value of attracting headquarters’ attention in order for initiatives to gain traction and eventually become accepted in the MNC. Attention to initiatives is captivated by the socio-political navigation of subsidiary managers, such as their engagement in initiative-selling. Establishing credibility at headquarters through attention-building activities may also result in increased subsidiary strategic influence.This thesis shows that initiatives that challenge the status quo of the MNC may initially be rejected, but are able to ‘survive’ due to a variety of micro-political behaviors of individual managers. Furthermore, the thesis also explicates different combinatory effects on the pathways to initiative acceptance. The thesis extends the subsidiary management literature by providing nuance to the theoretical understanding of key underlying mechanisms and their effects on subsidiary-focused outcomes. Establishing subsidiary managers as ‘strategizers’ and conceptualizing the subsidiary initiative process from a micro-political view contributes to the theoretical understanding of subsidiary initiatives in the MNC by complementing traditional evolutionary perspectives.
|
|
| 2. |
- Gorgijevski, Alexander, et al.
(författare)
-
Does proactivity matter? : The importance of initiative selling tactics for headquarters acceptance of subsidiary initiatives
- 2019
-
Ingår i: Journal of International Management. - : Elsevier BV. - 1075-4253 .- 1873-0620. ; 25:4
-
Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- By integrating literature on proactive behavior, in particular voice behavior theory, with the attention-based view of the firm, we examine how the use of a set of initiative selling tactics influences the acceptance of subsidiary initiatives by MNC headquarters. The findings suggest that the initiative selling tactics that matter most for the headquarters acceptance of subsidiary initiatives are related to proactive efforts such as the preparation and the packaging of the subsidiary initiative. The paper contributes to academia and practice by providing a richer un- derstanding of proactive behavior among subsidiaries in terms of the “voice tactics” used to get their subsidiary initiatives recognized and accepted by headquarters. The study uses data from a questionnaire survey of 110 MNC subsidiaries and qualitative interview data.
|
|
| 3. |
- Gorgijevski, Alexander, et al.
(författare)
-
Making Waves in a Huge Pond : Subsidiary Attention-Building Behaviour to Gain Strategic Influence
- 2019
-
Ingår i: Making Waves in a Huge Pond.
-
Konferensbidrag (refereegranskat)abstract
- This paper focuses on how strategic influence is gained among subsidiaries. By adopting an attention-based perspective of power this study develops and empirically tests a set of hypotheses aimed at explaining the impact of attention-building activities on subsidiaries strategic influence within the multinational corporation. Based on survey-data from 110 foreign-owned subsidiaries in Sweden the empirical results provide support for headquarter attention as a mediator between a subsidiary’s commitment and initiative selling -activities aimed at increasing the strategic influence within the MNC. The direct effects between the investigated attention-building activities and strategic influence remain non-significant. This suggests that subsidiaries are not able to increase their influence through commitment and initiative tactics unless they receive headquarters’ attention. The study contributes to the literature on headquarter-subsidiary relations and provide a theoretical framing by drawing on an attention-based perspective upon subsidiary power.
|
|
| 4. |
- Gorgijevski, Alexander N., 1991-, et al.
(författare)
-
Subsidiary Strategic Influence : The Role of Subsidiary Attention-Building Behavior
- 2022
-
Ingår i: Management Decision. - : Emerald Group Publishing Limited. - 0025-1747 .- 1758-6070. ; 60:13, s. 48-65
-
Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- PurposeBy the view of attention-building activities as “tools of power,” the authors investigate the impact of subsidiary involvement in attention-building activities on the strategic influence of subsidiaries within multinational corporations (MNCs).Design/methodology/approachThe study is based on survey data from 110 international subsidiaries located in Sweden. Five hypotheses were tested using structural equation modeling with linear structural relations.FindingsThe study shows that organizational commitment and external scouting activities, as two attention-building activities, do not directly affect the ability of subsidiaries to gain a strategic influence in MNCs. Rather, the results provide support for the importance of headquarters’ positive attention as a mediator between such activities and subsidiary strategic influence. This implies that subsidiaries do not receive any strategic influence through these activities unless they receive explicit positive attention from the corporate headquarters.Originality/valueThis study contributes to the micro-political view of the MNC by offering insights into the impact of attention-building activities of subsidiaries as a potential source of strategic influence for MNC subsidiaries.
|
|
| 5. |
- Bai, Wensong, et al.
(författare)
-
Leveraging networks, capabilities and opportunities for international success : A study on returnee entrepreneurial ventures
- 2018
-
Ingår i: Scandinavian Journal of Management. - : Elsevier BV. - 0956-5221 .- 1873-3387. ; 34:1, s. 51-62
-
Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- By integrating social capital theory with a capability-based view on performance, this paper aims to examine the extent to which returnee entrepreneurial ventures (REVs) gain international performance advantages from the founding entrepreneurs’ experience with international networks. Using data on 200 Chinese REVs, the paper proposes and tests a structural model with a focus on the link between individual entrepreneurs and the subsequent development of firm capabilities. The results provide evidence that it is important that the returnee entrepreneurs have an international social network for the REV to develop an international network capability, which, in turn, mediates the effects on opportunity knowledge and the international performance of the REVs. The findings highlight the concurrent effect of the role of entrepreneurs and organizational learning in internationalization, and they provide an understanding as to the importance of the returnee-specific advantages for the international performance of these firms.
|
|
| 6. |
|
|
| 7. |
|
|
| 8. |
- Holmström, Christine, 1969-
(författare)
-
In Search of MNC Competitive Advantage : The Role of Foreign Subsidiaries as Creators and Disseminators of Knowledge
- 2004
-
Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- Research on the multinational corporation (MNC) has highlighted the development of knowledge that occurs in geographically dispersed subsidiaries, and several scholars have emphasized the significance of subsidiary knowledge for the success of the MNC. This thesis contributes to the understanding of how knowledge is developed within MNC subsidiaries and how the development of subsidiary knowledge is related to the transfer of subsidiary knowledge and subsidiary impact on the performance of the larger MNC.The empirical setting consists of a combination of quantitative and qualitative data. The results of the empirical studies suggest that the development of subsidiary knowledge is contingent upon the business conditions within the local environment and, in particularly, interactive learning within relationships with important business actors external to the organization. Furthermore, the findings show that the development of knowledge within these subsidiaries is driven not only by external actors, but also by business relationships within the corporation. The results reveal that, whether a subsidiary learns and develops knowledge from external or internal sources has direct implications on how the knowledge can be used and applied by other units within the MNC, which in turn affects the extent to which the subsidiary can contribute to the performance of the MNC. It is also revealed that the barriers to transfer are especially manifest in situations in which a subsidiary is deeply embedded in relationships with demanding customers or suppliers. Thus, the embeddedness of subsidiaries in external relationships is a constraining factor for knowledge transfer. In situations in which the subsidiary is deeply embedded in its local market, the headquarters can influence the transfer across subsidiaries through the use of means such as centres of excellence.
|
|
| 9. |
- Holmström, Christine, 1969-, et al.
(författare)
-
Involvement of multinational corporations in social innovation: Exploring an emerging phenomenon
- 2022
-
Ingår i: Journal of Business Research. - : Elsevier. - 0148-2963 .- 1873-7978. ; 151, s. 207-221
-
Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- While studies on social innovation (SI) have expanded significantly, our understanding of multinational corporations (MNCs) in the “social” innovation arena remains in its infancy. Through a systematic literature review, we consolidate and examine literature linking the MNC with the ongoing discussion of SI based activities. Based on a qualitative content analysis of 60 articles, this review explores how the MNC is portrayed with regard to its involvement in SI. The analysis identifies a fragmented view of MNCs involvement in SI and reveals a variety of theoretical approaches and conceptualisations in prior research. Our review presents a framework of ‘MNC involvement in SI’ encompassing: differentiated conceptualisations, a dual value approach, five generic MNC roles, proactive and/or responsive motives, and specific barriers connected to the involvement in SI activities. From this, we suggest a number of implications for theory and practice as well as some directions for future research.
|
|
| 10. |
- Holmström, Christine, 1969-, et al.
(författare)
-
The value-adding role of the corporate headquarters in innovation transfer processes : The issue of headquarters' knowledge situation
- 2017
-
Ingår i: Management International Review. - : Springer. - 0025-181X .- 0938-8249 .- 1861-8901. ; 57:4, s. 571-602
-
Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- 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.
|
|
