In search of centre of excellence : Network embeddedness and subsidiaryroles in multinational corporations

• In this paper the authors explore the role of a subsidiary as a centre of excellencewithin the multinational corporation (MNC). It is argued that such a role can bebased on the characteristics of a subsidiary's internal resources, its relationshipswith the rest of the MNC and the business context of which the subsidiary is apart. Based on the perspective of an MNC as a Network the latter aspect is es-pecially focused. Through an analysis of 98 subsidiaries the importance of thesubsidiary's embeddedness, in terms of business relationships with specific cus-tomers and suppliers for its role as a centre of excellence, is investigated.A conceptual result from this paper is that it offers a framework for analysingthe role of the business context for the subsidiary's role as a centre of excel-lence. Productive relationships with external counterparts in the business envi-ronment can be used by the subsidiary to enhance its role as a centre of excel-lence. An empirical result is that the external embeddedness of the subsidiaryis an important and significant explanatory variable of the subsidiary's possibil-ities to be considered important to the MNC as well as a prerequisite to influ-ence the future behaviour of MNC.

Ämnesord

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

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

Publikations- och innehållstyp

ref (ämneskategori)

art (ämneskategori)