MNC headquarters' role in subsidiaries' value-creating activities: A problem of rationality or radical uncertainty

Scandinavian Journal of Management

Volumn 26, Issue 4, 2010, Pages 421-430

  Forsgren, Mats ^a   Holm, Ulf ^a  

^a UPPSALA UNIVERSITY   (Sweden)

Author keywords

Headquarters' role; Multinational corporations; Radical uncertainty; Rationality; Subsidiary; Value creating processes

Indexed keywords

EID: 78049467883     PISSN: 09565221     EISSN: None     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1016/j.scaman.2010.09.007     Document Type: Article

References (82)

1. Andersson U., Björkman I., Forsgren M. Managing subsidiary knowledge creation: The effect of control mechanisms on subsidiary local embeddedness. International Business Review 2005, 14:521-538.
2. Andersson U., Forsgren M., Holm U. Balancing subsidiary influence in the federative MNC: A business network view. Journal of International Business Studies 2007, 38(5):802-818.
3. Barnard J.B. The function of the executive 1938, Harvard University Press, Cambridge, MA.
4. Barner-Rasmussen W., Piekkari R., Scott-Kennel J., Welch C. Commander-in-chief or absentee landlord? Key perspectives on headquarters in multinational corporations. Managing the contemporary multinational: The role of headquarters 2010, 85-105. Edward Elgar, Cheltenham, UK. U. Andersson, U. Holm (Eds.).
5. Barney J.B. Firm resources and sustained competitive advantage. Journal of Management 1991, 17(1):99-120.
6. Birkinshaw J., Bouquet C., Ambos T.C. Managing executive attention in the global company. MIT Sloan Management Review 2007, 48(4):39-45.
7. Birkinshaw J., Holm U., Thilenus P., Arvidsson N. Consequences of perception gaps in the headquarters-Subsidiary relationships. International Business Review 2000, 9:321-344.
8. Birkinshaw J., Hood N. Multinational subsidiary evolution: Capability and charter change in foreign-owned subsidiary companies. Academy of Management Review 1998, 23(4):773-795.
9. Birkinshaw J., Hood N., Jonsson S. Building firm-specific advantages in multinational corporations: The role of subsidiary initiatives. Strategic Management Journal 1998, 19(3):221-241.
10. Björkman I. International human resource management research and institutional theory. Handbook of research in international human resource management 2006, 463-474. Edward Elgar, Cheltenham, UK. G.K. Stahl, I. Björkman (Eds.).
11. Björkman I., Barner-Rasmussen W., Li L. Managing knowledge transfer in MNCs: The impact of headquarters control mechanisms. Journal of International Business Studies 2004, 35(5):385-406.
12. Bouquet C., Morrison A., Birkinshaw J. International attention and multinational enterprise performance. Journal of International Business Studies 2009, 40(1):108-131.
13. Brunsson N. The irrationality of action and action rationality: Decisions, ideologies and organizational actions. Journal of Management Studies 1982, 19(1):29-44.
14. Brunsson N The irrational organization: Irrationality as a basis for organizational action and change 1985, John Wiley, Chichester.
15. Buckley P., Casson M. The future of the multinational enterprise 1991, MacMillan, London. 2nd ed.
16. Cantwell J. Technological innovation and multinational corporations 1989, Blackwell, Oxford, UK; Cambridge, MA.
17. Chandler A., Sloan A., Williamson O. The role of the centre. Strategies and styles: The role of the centre in managing diversified corporations 1987, 15-34. Basil Blackwell, Oxford. M. Goold, A. Campbell (Eds.).
18. Chandler A.D. The functions of the HQ unit in the multibusiness firm. Strategic Management Journal 1991, 12:31-50.
19. Chandler A.D. Strategy and structure: Chapters in the history of the industrial enterprise 1962, MIT Press, Cambridge, MA.
20. Coase R.H. The nature of the firm. Economica, New Series 1937, 4(16):386-405.
21. Collis D.J., Young D., Goold M. The size, structure and performance of corporate headquarters. Strategic Management Journal 2007, 28:383-405.
22. Conner K.R., Prahalad C.K. A resource-based theory of the firm: Knowledge versus opportunism. Organization Science 1996, 7(5):477-501.
23. Daft R.L. Organization theory and design 1998, South-Western College Publishing, Cincinnati.
24. Doz Y.L., Santos J., Williamson P.J. From global to metanational: How companies win in the knowledge economy. 2001, Harvard Business School Press, Boston, MA.
25. Egelhoff B. Evaluating the role of parent HQ in a contemporary MNC. Managing the contemporary multinational: The role of headquarters 2010, 106-122. Edward Elgar, Cheltenham, UK. U. Andersson, U. Holm (Eds.).
26. Egelhoff W.G. Organizing the multinational enterprise: An information-processing perspective 1988, Ballinger, Cambridge, MA.
27. Ferner A., Almond Ph., Colling T. Institutional theory and the cross-border transfer of employment policy. Journal of International Business Studies 2005, 36(3):304-321.
28. Forsgren M., Holm U., Johanson J. Managing the embedded multinational: A business network view 2005, Edward Elgar Publishing, Cheltenham, UK.
29. Foss N. Coase vs Hayek: Economic organization and the knowledge economy. International Journal of the Economics of Business 2002, 9:9-35.
30. Ghoshal S., Nohria N. The differentiated MNC: Organizing the multinational corporation for value creation 1997, Jossey-Bass, San Francisco, CA.
31. Organization theory and the multinational corporation 1993, St. Martins, New York. S. Ghoshal, D.E. Westney (Eds.).
32. Giddens A. The constitution of society 1984, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge.
33. Goodall K., Roberts J. Repairing managerial knowledge-ability over distance. Organization Studies 2003, 24(7):1153-1175.
34. Goold M., Campbell A. Parenting in complex structures. Long Range Planning 2002, 35:219-243.
35. Hatch J.M. Organization theory. Modern, symbolic and postmodern perspectives 1997, Oxford University Press, NY.
36. Hayek F.A. The use of knowledge in society. The American Economic Review 1945, 35(4):519-530.
37. Hayek F.A.V. Law, legislation and liberty 1982, Vol. 1. Routledge & Kegan Paul, London.
38. Helper S., MacDuffie J.P., Sabel C. Pragmatic collaborations: Advancing knowledge while controlling opportunism. Industrial and Corporate Change 2000, 9(3):443-488.
39. Hennart J.-F. A theory of multinational enterprise 1982, University of Michigan Press, Ann Arbor, MA.
40. Jacobson R. The " Austrian" school of strategy. Academy of Management Journal 1992, 17(4):782-807.
41. Kirzner I.M. Entrepreneurial discovery and the competitive market process: An Austrian approach. Journal of Economic Literature 1997, 35(1):60-85.
42. Kogut B., Zander U. Knowledge of the firm and the evolutionary theory of the multinational corporation. Journal of International Business Studies 1993, 24(4):625-646.
43. Kogut B., Zander U. Knowledge and the speed of transfer and imitation of organizational capabilities: An empirical test. Organization Science 1995, 6(1):76-92.
44. Kogut B., Zander U. What firms do? Coordination, identity and learning. Organization Science 1996, 7(5):502-518.
45. Kogut B., Zander U. A memoir and reflection: Knowledge and evolutionary theory of the multinational firm ten years later. Journal of International Business Studies 2003, 34:505-515.
46. Kostova T., Zaheer S. Organizational legitimacy under conditions of complexity: The case of the multinational enterprise. Academy of Management Review 1999, 24(1):64-81.
47. Kristensen P.H., Zeitlin J. The making of a global firm: Local pathways to multinational enterprise. The multinational firm: Organizing across institutional and national divides 2001, 172-195. Oxford University Press, Oxford. G. Morgan, P.H. Kristensen, R. Whitley (Eds.).
48. Madhok A. Cost, value and foreign entry mode: The transaction and the firm. Strategic Management Journal 1997, 18:39-41.
49. March J.G. Rationality, foolishness, and adaptive intelligence. Strategic Management Journal 2006, 27:201-214.
50. March J.G., Olsen J. Ambiguity and choice in organizations 1976, Universitetsforlaget, Bergen.
51. March J.G., Simon H.A. Organizations 1958, Blackwell Business/Blackwell Publishers, Cambridge, MA, USA.
52. Markides C. Corporate strategy: The role of the centre. Handbook of strategy and management 2002, 98-122. Sage, London. A.H. Pettigrew, H. Thomas, R. Whittington (Eds.).
53. Markides C., Williamson P.J. Related diversification, core competences and corporate performance. Strategic Management Journal 1994, 15(Special Issue):149-165.
54. Mintzberg H. The design school: Reconsidering the basic premises of strategic management. Strategic Management Journal 1990, 11:171-195.
55. Morgan G., Kristensen P.H. The contested space of multinationals: Varieties of institutionalism, varieties of capitalism. Human Relations 2006, 59(11):1469-1490.
56. Morgan G., Whitley R. Introduction to special issue on the changing multinational firm. Journal of Management Studies 2003, 40(3):609-616.
57. Nelson R.R. National innovation systems: A comparative analysis 1993, Norton, New York.
58. Nohria N., Ghoshal S. Differentiated fit and shared values: Alternatives for managing headquarters-subsidiary relations. Strategic Management Journal 1994, 15(6):491-502.
59. O'Donnell S.W. Managing foreign subsidiaries: Agents of headquarters or an interdependent network?. Strategic Management Journal 2000, 21:525-548.
60. Poppo L. The visible hands of hierarchy within the M-form: An empirical test of corporate parenting of internal product exchanges. Journal of Management Studies 2003, 40(2):403-430.
61. Powell W. Neither market, nor hierarchy: Network forms of organization. Research in Organizational Behavior 1990, 12:295-336.
62. Rosenzweig P.M., Singh J.V. Organizing environments and the multinational enterprise. Academy of Management Review 1991, 18(2):340-361.
63. Roth K., Kostowa T. The use of the multinational corporation as a research context. Journal of Management 2003, 29(6):883-902.
64. Roth K., O'Donnell S.W. Foreign subsidiary compensation strategy: An agency theory perspective. Academy of Management Journal 1996, 39:678-703.
65. Quinn J.B. Managing innovation: Controlled chaos. Harvard Business Review 1985, 53(3):73-84.
66. Rowley T., Behrens D., Krackhardt D. Redundant governance structures: An analysis of structural and relational embeddedness in the steel and semiconductor industries. Strategic Management Journal 2000, 21(3):369-386.
67. Sarasvathy S.D. Causation and effectuation: Toward a theoretical shift from economic inevitability to entrepreneurial contingency. Academy of Management Review 2001, 36(2):243-263.
68. Scott W.R. Organizations. Rational, natural, and open systems 1981, Englewood Cliffs, NJ, Prentice Hall.
69. Simon H. Theories of decision-making in economics and behavioural science. American Economic Review 1959, 49:253-283.
70. Simon H.A. A formal theory of the employment relationship. Econometrica 1951, 19(3):293-305.
71. Stacey R.H. The science of complexity: An alternative perspective for strategic change processes. Strategic Management Journal 1995, 16:477-495.
72. Teece D.J., Pisano G., Shuen A. Dynamic capabilities and strategic management. Strategic Management Journal 1997, 18(7):509-533.
73. Thompson J.D. Organizations in actions: Social science bases of administrative theory 1967, McGraw Hill, New York.
74. Tsoukas H. The firm as a distributed knowledge system: A constructionist approach. Strategic Management Journal 1996, 17(Winter Special Issue):11-25.
75. Uzzi B. Social structure and competition in inter firm networks: The paradox of embeddedness. Administrative Science Quarterly 1997, 42(1):35-67.
76. Verbeke A. The evolutionary view of the MNE and the future of internalization theory. Journal of International Business Studies 2003, 34:498-504.
77. Verbeke A., Greidanus N.S. The end of opportunism vs trust debate: Bounded reliability as a new envelope concept in research on MNE governance. Journal of International Business Studies 2009, 40:1471-1495.
78. Weick K.E., Roberts K.H. Collective mind in organizations: Heedful interrelating on flight decks. Academy of Science Quarterly 1993, 38:357-381.
79. Westney E. Institutionalization theory and the multinational corporation. Organization theory and the multinational corporation 1993, 53-76. St. Martins Press, New York. S. Ghoshal, E. Westney (Eds.).
80. Williamson O. Managerial discretion, organization form and the multinational hypothesis. The corporate economic growth, competition and innovative power 1971, 343-386. MacMillan, London. R. Marris, A. Wood (Eds.).
81. Williamson O.E. The economic institution of capitalism 1985, The Free Press, New York.
82. Zukin S., DiMaggio P.J. Structure of capital 1990, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, UK.