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- Gorgijevski, Alexander N., 1991-
(författare)
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Enter the Dragon : Toward a Micro-political View on Subsidiary Initiatives
- 2021
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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.
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| 3. |
- Lagerström, Katarina
(författare)
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Transnational Projects within Multinational Corporations
- 2001
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- The complexity of organizing and managing the operations within multinational corporations (MNCs) has increased over the recent decades. This has led MNCs to utilize other organizational forms and mechanisms than the ones previously used for increasing collaboration and integration, but also for making use of knowledge developed at units within different countries accessible on a global basis within the corporation. Projects of a transnational type, i.e., projects with participants from different countries, and often from several hierarchical levels within the MNC, are one organizational form that has been suggested as a possible means by which to obtain this. In a more general sense, projects have been addressed in the so-called project management literature, and studies have shown that the use of projects are definitely on the increase, and not only in those sectors traditionally utilizing projects. Within this literature, however, the view is generally taken that the principles of project management and organization are applicable to all organizations, as a result of which the projects are treated as though they were detached and independent of their context. Within both these areas, requests for empirical studies have been put forward. The overall aim of the study was to increase the understanding of the use of transnational projects and how these projects are organized and managed in large MNCs. And this is not only within the individual projects per se, but also in relation to the permanent organization (the MNC) in which the transnational projects are embedded.A combination of research methods was used to provide the enhanced portrait of transnational projects being sought. A case study was first carried out at ABB. This fulfilled the purpose of providing an initial understanding of transnational projects and of furnishing the basis for a mail survey to large Swedish manufacturing-oriented MNCs.The study showed that transnational projects are perceived to increase coordination and knowledge flows within corporations, and therefore are not only used to find a solution to a corporate problem, but also to improve coordination and cooperation, and to enhance knowledge flow. Furthermore, it was shown that headquarters has a relatively more important role as the main coordinator and decision-maker, whereas units on other internal organizational levels are more important as contributors of knowledge. One last, but nevertheless significant implication of the study is that the overall structure of the MNC, i.e., the context of the transnational projects, influences how these projects are organized and managed.
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- Schmuck, Alice, 1989-
(författare)
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A Tale of Two Concepts : Exploring the Relationship between Firm Performance and Multinationality
- 2022
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- Despite being a pivotal topic over the past 50 years, the benefits and costs of internationalization are not well understood. A substantial body of research in international business, strategy, and general management is devoted to understanding firm internationalization and its connection to a firm’s financial performance; however, results are inconclusive.This thesis explores firm performance in relation to internationalization processes and, consequently, a firm’s degree of multinationality. The aim is to critically assess the extant literature, evaluate prevailing underlying assumptions, and investigate the causal direction between the two key concepts: firm performance and multinationality. A sequential, multiphase research approach divides the research process into three consecutive phases – exploratory, confirmatory, and explicatory – allowing for a combination of methods, including a systematic literature review, fixed effects logistic regression on 13 years of unbalanced panel data, curvilinear OLS regression on panel data, and content analysis of pilot case studies. Together, this provides a holistic response to the research question: What role does firm performance play in relation to multinationality?Findings reveal a paradigmatic bias in previous research, where authors propagate the ubiquitous causal assumption that multinationality affects firm performance. Instead, this thesis finds solid statistical support for a reversed causal relationship – firm performance drives multinationality. The theoretical arguments are derived from behavioral theories, including the resource-based view, the internationalization process model, and prospect theory. This thesis bridges organizational-level with individual-level theories, contributing to the discussion on managerial decision-making in the internationalization process.
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