Selling, resistance and reconciliation: A critical discursive approach to subsidiary role evolution in MNEs

Journal of International Business Studies

Volumn 42, Issue 6, 2011, Pages 765-786

  Balogun, Julia ^a   Jarzabkowski, Paula ^b   Vaara, Eero ^c  

^a LANCASTER UNIVERSITY MANAGEMENT SCHOOL   (United Kingdom)

^b ASTON UNIVERSITY   (United Kingdom)

^c HANKEN SCHOOL OF ECONOMICS   (Finland)

Author keywords

case study; discourse analysis; MNE integration; Primary data source; strategic change; strategy processes

Indexed keywords

EID: 79960828932     PISSN: 00472506     EISSN: 14786990     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1057/jibs.2011.13     Document Type: Article

References (71)

1. Alvesson, M., & Kärreman, D. 2000. Varieties of discourse: On the study of organizations through discourse analysis. Human Relations, 53(9): 1125-1149.
2. Ambos, B., & Schlegelmilch, B. B. 2007. Innovation and control in the multinational firm: A comparison of political and contingency approaches. Strategic Management Journal, 28(5): 473-486. (Pubitemid 46571834)
3. Andersson, U., Forsgren, M., & Holm, U. 2007. Balancing subsidiary influence in the federative MNC: A business network view. Journal of International Business Studies, 38(5): 802-818.
4. Bakhtin, M. M. 1981. The dialogic imagination: Four essays, (transl. C. Emerson & M. Holquist). Austin: University of Texas Press.
5. Balogun, J., & Johnson, G. 2004. Organizational restructuring and middle manager sensemaking. Academy of Management Journal, 47(4): 523-549. (Pubitemid 39258730)
6. Balogun, J., Bartunek, J., & Do, B. 2010. Uncovering relationships and shared emotion beneath senior managers' resistance to strategic change. Academy of Management Annual Meeting Proceedings.
7. Bartlett, C. A. 2006. Philips versus Matsushita: A new century, a new round, Harvard Business Case 9-302-049.
8. Bartlett, C. A., & Ghoshal, S. 1993. Beyond the M-form: Toward a managerial theory of the firm. Strategic Management Journal, 14(8): 23-46.
9. Belanger, J., Edwards, P., & Wright, M. 1999. Best HR practice and the multinational company. Human Resource Management Journal, 9(3): 53-70.
10. Birkinshaw, J., & Hood, N. 1998a. Multinational subsidiary evolution: Capability and charter change in foreign-owned subsidiary companies. Academy of Management Review, 23(4): 773-795.
11. Birkinshaw, J., & Hood, N. 1998b. Multinational corporate evolution and subsidiary development. London: Macmillan.
12. Birkinshaw, J., & Pedersen, T. 2009. Strategy and management in MNE subsidiaries. In A. Rugman (Ed), The Oxford handbook of international business, (2nd edn): 380-402. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
13. Birkinshaw, J., Young, S., & Hood, N. 2005. Subsidiary entrepreneurship, internal and external competitive forces and subsidiary performance. International Business Review, 14(2): 227-248. (Pubitemid 40190065)
14. Boje, D. M. 2007. Globalization antenarratives. In A. Mills, J. C. Helms-Mills, & C. Forshaw (Eds), Organizational behavior in a global context: 505-549. Toronto: Garamond Press.
15. Boje, D. M., Oswick, C., & Ford, J. D. 2004. Language and organization: The doing of discourse. Academy of Management Review, 29(4): 571-577. (Pubitemid 39483348)
16. Bouquet, C., & Birkinshaw, J. 2008a. Weight versus voice: How foreign subsidiaries gain attention from corporate headquarters. Academy of Management Journal, 51(3): 577-601.
17. Bouquet, C., & Birkinshaw, J. 2008b. Managing power in the multinational corporation: How low-power actors gain influence. Journal of Management, 34(3): 477-508.
18. Boussebaa, M. 2009. Struggling to organize across national borders: The case of global resource management in professional service firms. Human Relations, 62(6): 829-850.
19. Boussebaa, M., & Morgan, G. 2008. Managing talent across national borders: The challenges faced by an international retail group. Critical Perspectives on International Business, 4(1): 25-41.
20. Brannen, M. Y. 2004. When Mickey loses face: Recontextualization, semantic fit, and the semiotics of foreignness. Academy of Management Review, 29(4): 593-616. (Pubitemid 39483350)
21. Clark, G., & Geppert, M. 2011. Subsidiary integration as identity construction and institution building: A political sensemaking approach. Journal of Management Studies, 48(2): 395-416.
22. Czarniawska, B. 2004. Narratives in social science research. London: Sage.
23. Davies, B., & Harré, R. 1990. Positioning: The discursive production of selves. Journal for the Theory of Social Behavior, 20(1): 44-63.
24. Dörrenbächer, C., & Gammelgaard, J. 2006. Subsidiary role development: The effect of micro-political headquarters- subsidiary negotiations on the product, market and valueadded scope of foreign-owned subsidiaries. Journal of International Management, 12(3): 266-283. (Pubitemid 44464193)
25. Dörrenbächer, C., & Geppert,M. 2006.Micro-politics and conflicts in multinational corporations: Current debates, re-framing, and contributions of this special issue. Journal of International Management, 12(3): 251-265. (Pubitemid 44464192)
26. Doz, Y., & Prahalad, C. K. 1993. Managing DMNCs: A search for a new paradigm. In S. Ghoshal & D. E. Westney (Eds), Organization theory and the multinational corporation: 24-50. Basingstoke: Macmillan.
27. Eisenhardt, K. E., & Graebner, M. E. 2007. Theory building from cases: Opportunities and challenges. Academy of Management Journal, 50(1): 25-32.
28. Fairclough, N. 2003. Analysing discourse: Textual analysis for social research. London: Routledge.
29. Fairclough, N. 2005. Discourse analysis in organization studies: The case for critical realism. Organization Studies, 26(6): 915-939. (Pubitemid 41787272)
30. Fairclough, N., & Thomas, P. 2004. The discourse of globalization and the globalization of discourse. In D. Grant, C. Hardy, C. Oswick, & L. Putman (Eds), The Sage handbook of organizational discourse: 379-396. London: Sage.
31. Ferner, A., & Edwards, P. K. 1995. Power and the diffusion of organizational change within multinational enterprises. European Journal of Industrial Relations, 1(2): 229-257.
32. Fiss, P. C., & Hirsch, P. M. 2005. The discourse of globalization: Framing and sensemaking of an emerging concept. American Sociological Review, 70(1): 29-52. (Pubitemid 40815637)
33. Ford, J. D., Ford, L. W., & D'Amelio, A. 2008. Resistance to change: The rest of the story. Academy of Management Review, 33(2): 362-377.
34. Frenkel, M. 2008. The multinational corporation as a third space: Rethinking international management discourse on knowledge transfer through Homi Bhabha. Academy of Management Review, 33(4): 924-942.
35. Geppert, M. 2003. Sensemaking and politics in MNCs: A comparative analysis of vocabularies within the global manufacturing discourse in one industrial sector. Journal of Management Inquiry, 12(4): 312-329. (Pubitemid 37445879)
36. Geppert, M., & Williams, K. 2006. Global, national and local practices in multinational corporations: Towards a sociopolitical framework. International Journal of Human Resource Management, 17(1): 49-69. (Pubitemid 43347852)
37. Grant, D., Hardy, C., Oswick, C., & Putnam, L. 2004. The Sage handbook of organizational discourse. London: Sage.
38. Hardy, C., & Phillips, N. 2004. Discourse and power. In D. Grant, C. Hardy, C. Oswick, & L. Putnam (Eds), The Sage handbook of organizational discourse: 229-316. London: Sage.
39. Hardy, C., Palmer, I., & Phillips, N. 2000. Discourse as a strategic resource. Human Relations, 53(9): 1227-1248.
40. Jarzabkowski, P., & Sillince, J. A. A. 2007. A rhetoric-in-context approach to shaping commitment to multiple strategic goals. Organization Studies, 28(10): 1639-1665.
41. Jarzabkowski, P., Balogun, J., & Seidl, D. 2007. Strategizing: The challenges of a practice perspective. Human Relations, 60(1): 5-27.
42. Jick, T. D. 1979. Mixing qualitative and quantitative methods: Triangulation in action. Administration Science Quarterly, 24(4): 602-611.
43. Langley, A. 1999. Strategies for theorizing from process data. Academy of Management Review, 24(4): 691-710.
44. Lincoln, Y. S., & Guba, E. G. 1985. Naturalistic inquiry. London: Sage.
45. Maguire, S., & Hardy, C. 2006. The emergence of new global institutions: A discursive perspective. Organization Studies, 27(1): 7-29. (Pubitemid 43394484)
46. Maguire, S., & Hardy, C. 2009. Discourse and deinstitutionalization: The decline of DDT. Academy of Management Journal, 52(10): 148-178.
47. Mantere, S., & Vaara, E. 2008. On the problem of participation in strategy: A critical discursive perspective. Organization Science, 19(2): 341-358.
48. Miles, M. B., & Huberman, A. M. 1994. Qualitative data analysis: An expanded sourcebook. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications.
49. Mudambi, R., & Navarra, P. 2004. Is knowledge power? Knowledge flows, subsidiary power and rent-seeking within MNCs. Journal of International Business Studies, 35(5): 385-406. (Pubitemid 39443155)
50. Mumby, D. K. 2004. Discourse, power and ideology: Unpacking the critical approach. In D. Grant, C. Hardy, C. Oswick, N. Phillips, & L. Putnam (Eds), The Sage handbook of organizational discourse: 237-258. London: Sage.
51. Mumby, D. K. 2005. Theorizing resistance in organization studies: A dialectical approach. Management Communication Quarterly, 19(1): 19-44. (Pubitemid 41174202)
52. Nohria, N., & Ghoshal, S. 1997. The differentiated network. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.
53. Pentland, B. T. 1999. Building process theory with narrative: From description to explanation. Academy of Management Review, 24(4): 711-724.
54. Pettigrew, A. M. 1992. The character and significance of strategy process research. Strategic Management Journal, 13(S2): 5-16.
55. Phillips, N., & Hardy, C. 2002. Discourse analysis: Investigating processes of social construction. London: Sage.
56. Phillips, N., Sewell, G., & Jaynes, S. 2008. Applying critical discourse analysis in strategic management research. Organizational Research Methods, 11(4): 770-789.
57. Piekkari, R., Welch, C., & Paavilainen, E. 2009. The case study as disciplinary convention: Evidence from international business journals. Organizational Research Methods, 12(3): 567-589.
58. Søderberg, A.-M. 2006. Narrative interviewing and narrative analysis in a study of a cross-border merger. Management International Review, 46(4): 397-416.
59. Søderberg, A.-M., & Holden, N. 2002. Rethinking cross cultural management in a globalizing business world. International Journal of Cross Cultural Management, 2(1): 103-121.
60. Spee, A. P., & Jarzabkowski, P. 2010. Strategic planning as communicative process. Organization Studies, 31(9-10): 1189-1207.
61. Taplin, I. M. 2006. Strategic change and organizational restructuring: How managers negotiate change initiatives. Journal of International Management, 12(3): 284-301. (Pubitemid 44464194)
62. Tempel, A., Edwards, T., Ferner, A., Muller-Camen, M., & Wächter, H. 2006. Subsidiary responses to institutional duality: Collective representation practices of US multinationals in Britain and Germany. Human Relations, 59(11): 1543-1570. (Pubitemid 44745887)
63. Thomas, R., Sargent, L. D., & Hardy, C. 2011. Managing organizational change: Negotiating meaning and powerresistance relations. Organization Science, 22: 22-41.
64. Vaara, E., & Monin, P. 2010. A recursive perspective on discursive legitimation and organizational action in mergers and acquisitions. Organization Science, 21(1): 3-22.
65. Vaara, E., & Tienari, J. 2004. Critical discourse analysis as methodology for critical international business studies. In R. Marschan-Piekkari & C. Welch (Eds), Handbook of qualitative research methods for international business: 342-362. Cheltenham: Edward Elgar.
66. Vaara, E., & Tienari, J. 2008. A discursive perspective on legitimation strategies in MNCs. Academy of Management Review, 33(4): 985-993.
67. Vaara, E., & Tienari, J. 2011. On the narrative construction of multinational corporations: An antenarrative analysis of legitimation and resistance in a cross-border merger. Organization Science, 22(2): 370-390.
68. Welch, C., Piekkari, R., Plakoyiannak, E., & Paavilainen- Mäntymäki, E. 2010. Theorising from case studies: Towards a pluralist future for international business research. Journal of International Business Studies, advance online publication, 16 December. doi: 10.1057/jibs.2010.55.
69. Wodak, R. 2004. Critical discourse analysis. In C. Seale, J. F. Gobrium, & D. Sliverman (Eds), Qualitative research practice: 197-213. London: Sage.
70. Wodak, R., & Meyer, M. 2002. Methods of critical discourse analysis. London: Sage.
71. Yin, R. K. 1994. Case study research: Design and methods, (2nd edn) London: Sage.