Towards Explaining the Use of Control Mechanisms in Foreign Subsidiaries of MNCs (summary section only)

Control is central to management and there is already a considerable body of research on control. However, the emergence and growth of multinational corporations (MNCs) has renewed the interest in control, as MNCs are complex (often large) organizations that face circumstances beyond those of national business organizations. The geographical dispersion of MNC activities means that the headquarters controls subsidiaries that differ with regard to power and that are embedded in different cultural, political, legal and educational systems. Foreign subsidiary control also takes place across language boundaries and physical (i.e. geographical) distances. In face of these challenges, how are foreign subsidiaries controlled? The thesis explores different types of control mechanisms and attempts to explain the degree to which they are used to control foreign subsidiaries. It contributes to existing knowledge on control by exploring how five different control mechanisms are related to each other. Previous research has tended to focus only on one or two control mechanisms and seldom has their effect on each other been explored. The thesis also contributes by including two central aspects of the MNC that have been neglected in much of the research on foreign subsidiary control: language competence of subsidiary staff and physical distance between the headquarters and its subsidiaries. The findings indicate that specific control mechanisms should not be studied in isolation as there are intricate relationships among the different control mechanisms. Language competence of the subsidiary staff can furthermore affect the type and degree of control that the headquarters can exercise over a subsidiary. The findings also indicate that changes in the physical distance between subsidiaries and its headquarters (i.e. a relocation of the headquarters as part of a restructuring process) can have great consequences for the headquarters-subsidiary relationship.

Relação matriz-subsidiária de multinacional farmacêutica: fatores determinantes na decisão estratégica

Este trabalho tem como principal objetivo analisar a relação matriz-subsidiária de uma empresa do setor farmacêutico no Brasil. Para atender ao objetivo deste trabalho, foi realizada uma revisão da literatura sobre o tema na área de negócios internacionais, cadeia de suprimentos, custos logísticos, aparato regulatório, infra-estrutura e estratégia corporativa, a fim de compreender os diferentes fatores que influenciam os papéis desempenhados pelas subsidiárias com relação às matrizes e aos mercados em que se encontram instaladas. A partir deste referencial teórico, foram selecionadas algumas tipologias como critérios de análise para a investigação empírica das práticas na empresa selecionada. A metodologia utilizada engloba um estudo de caso único com duas sub unidades de análise, a subsidiária e a matriz. Também foram realizadas análises do setor farmacêutico internacional e nacional (inclusive o modelo regulatório), visando melhor compreensão e contextualização da relação matriz-subsidiária. A análise dos resultados deste estudo de caso, fundamentados no referencial teórico conclui que esta subsidiária está sujeita a fortes impactos do aparato regulatório por parte da Anvisa e da falta de infra-estrutura logística para maior eficiência e competitividade perante seus concorrentes, o que determina a baixa autonomia perante a matriz quanto ao processo decisório estratégico dentro da corporação.

Os fatores que impactam no desenvolvimento da mentalidade comercial no modelo empresarial de serviços compartilhados

A implantação e expansão do modelo operacional de “serviços compartilhados” ocupam um lugar de destaque na atual estratégia de muitas empresas multinacionais, o que demonstra seu valor e sucesso como mecanismo de redução de desperdícios e de aumento da eficiência e da eficácia na execução das atividades organizacionais. Esta dissertação tem o objetivo de investigar problemas que podem comprometer o sucesso deste modelo partindo de alguma hipóteses levantadas pelo autor com base em sua observações e vivência profissional. Para atender ao objetivo deste trabalho, foi realizada uma revisão da literatura sobre os temas estratégia e relação matriz-subsidiária, a fim de compreender os diferentes fatores que influenciam os papéis desempenhados pelas subsidiárias com relação às matrizes. Estes temas foram selecionados em virtude das revelações do campo. Com base neste referencial teórico, foram selecionadas algumas tipologias como critério de análise para a investigação empírica das práticas na empresa selecionada. A metodologia utilizada engloba um estudo de caso único. É feita uma análise dos resultados encontrados na pesquisa baseando-se no referencial teórico selecionado na tipologia. Com base no caso estudado, é possível afirmar que a relação matriz-subsidiária impacta diretamente no sucesso deste modelo em empresas multinacionais.

Parenting advantage in the MNC: An embeddedness perspective on the value added by headquarters

What determines the value an MNC’s headquarters adds to its own affiliates? In this paper, we shed light on this question by linking the embeddedness view of the multinational corporation to the literature on parenting advantage. We test our hypotheses on an original dataset of 124 manufacturing subsidiaries located in Europe. Our results indicate that the external embeddedness of the MNC is an antecedent to headquarters’ value creation. We find that headquarters’ investments into their own relationships with the subsidiaries’ contexts are positively related to the value added by headquarters. Furthermore, this relationship is stronger when the subsidiary itself is strongly embedded. We discuss implications for the MNC literature, embeddedness research, and the literature on parenting and headquarters’ roles. Copyright © 2013 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Applying Enterprise Architecture to Business Networks

Globalization, financial deregulation, economic turmoil, and technology breakthroughs are profoundly exposing organizations to business networks. Engaging these networks requires explicit planning from the strategic level down to the operational level of an organization, which significantly affects organizational artefacts such as business services, processes, and resources. Although enterprise architecture (EA) aligns business and IT aspects of organizational systems, previous applications of EA have not comprehensively addressed a methodological framework for planning. In the context of business networks, this study seeks to explore the application of EA for business network planning where it builds upon relevant and well-established prescriptive and descriptive aspects of EA. Prescriptive aspects include integrated models of services, business processes, and resources among other organizational artefacts, at both business and IT levels. Descriptive aspects include ontological classifications of business functionality, which allow EA models to be aligned semantically to organizational artefacts and, ultimately higher-level business strategy. A prominent approach for capturing descriptive aspects of EA is business capability modelling. In order to explore and develop the illustrative extensions of EA through capability modelling, a list of requirements (capability dimensions) for business network planning will be identified and validated through a revelatory case study encompassing different business network manifestations, or situations. These include virtual organization, liquid workforce, business network orchestration, and headquarters-subsidiary. The use of artefacts, conventionally, modelled through EA will be considered in these network situations. Two general considerations for EA extensions are explored for the identified requirements at the level of the network: extension of artefacts through the network and alignment of network level artefacts with individual organization artefacts. The list of requirements provides the basis for a constructivist extension of EA in the following ways. Firstly, for descriptive aspects, it offers constructivist insights to guide extensions for particular EA techniques and concepts. Secondly, for prescriptive aspects it defines a set of capability dimensions, which improve the analysis and assessment of organization capabilities for business network situations.

Swimming against the tide:Outward staffing flows from multinational subsidiaries

Studying the flows of parent country nationals in multinational enterprises (MNEs) to subsidiary operations has a relatively long tradition. Studying flows of subsidiary employees to other subsidiaries, as third country nationals, and to the corporate headquarters, as inpatriates, however, has empirically much less pedigree. Drawing on a large-scale empirical study of MNEs in Ireland, this paper provides a benchmark of outward flows of international assignees from the Irish subsidiaries of foreign-owned MNEs to both corporate headquarters and other worldwide operations. Building on insights from the resource-based view and neo-institutional theory, we develop and test a theoretical model to explain outward staffing flows. The results show that almost half of all MNEs use some form of outward staffing flows from their Irish operations. Although the impact of specific variables in explaining inter-organization variation differs between the utilization of inpatriate and third country national assignments, overall we find that a number of headquarters, subsidiary, structural, and human resource systems factors emerge as strong predictors of outward staffing flows. © 2010 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

A relação subsidiária-matriz no mercado brasileiro de cosméticos

The objective of this work is to analyze the headquarters-subsidiary relation of a multinational company in the segment of cosmetics located in Brazil. In order to reach this objective, a revision of the literature on the international business area subject was carried, since this work aims to understand the different factors that influence the role of the subsidiaries in relation to the headquarters and to the markets they are installed. From this literature, some typologies were selected for the empirical analysis inside the selected company. The methodology used is a single case of study split in two sub-units of analysis, the subsidiary and the headquarters. For a better understanding of the research result, the characteristics of the multinational in the world, of the Brazilian cosmetic market and of the subsidiary are presented. This last one was divided in description of the operations, autonomy in relation to the headquarters and strategy. Finally, an analysis of the results combined with the literature explored in the typology is done, as well as an analysis in relation to the other authors not selected in the typology, but who were also considered in this work. The conclusion of this work makes possible to confirm that the subsidiary has no international responsibility and low autonomy in relation to its headquarters.

Executives as Agents: Expatriate managers in subsidiaries of multinational banks. ACES Working Papers, June 2012

Performance and behavior between domestic and foreign-owned banks are grounded in assumptions about the ability of parent banks to provide subsidiaries with capital and knowledge and to manage asymmetric information and agency problems in the parent-subsidiary relationship. We complement research on internal capital markets and investigate how foreign owners of banks in emerging markets use their power to appoint executives at their subsidiaries to manage agency problems in the parent-subsidiary relationship. We find that perceived corruption and poor ICRG risk scores are associated with the appointment of parent-country executives as supervisors on behalf of the foreign owner. By contrast, a focus on retail clients, the absence of organizational routines and poor creditor rights are associated with the appointment of host-country executives. These bank and country characteristics create agency problems within the subsidiary, but not necessarily between the subsidiary and its parent. As such, they create a need for host-country executives’ superior knowledge of local markets and staff rather than for the supervisory role of parent-country executives.

German-Irish corporate relationships:the cultural dimension

The thesis raises the question of whether or not in an age of internationalisation and globalisation, the cultural differences which exist between Germany and Ireland are still relevant to German-Irish corporate relationships or have internationally accepted best practices removed culture from the equation? The first three chapters establish the theoretical framework of the thesis by outlining the broadly culturalist/institutionalist approach, based on the work of Hofstede and Maurice et al, to be pursued, profiling the business cultures of both countries by analysing the components of their respective national institutional frameworks, and the examining existing approaches to the study of mother company-foreign subsidiary relationships. Chapters four to seven constitute the empirical section of the thesis. Using the interviews carried out with two sample groups (Sample Group A: 15 German mother companies and 14 of their Irish operations and Sample Group B: 7 Irish mother companies and 9 of their German operations), the mother companies in both groups are examined to see whether or not they demonstrate characteristics which are in keeping with their national business cultures. Their foreign operations are then analysed as is the mother company-foreign subsidiary relationship to determine whether or not any mother company influences are visible. The general approaches adopted by the two groups of mother companies to their foreign operations are compared and contrasted. Finally, differences in national attitudes and values are identified and their impact assessed. The analysis reveals that despite existing pressures towards convergence, the cultural differences between both countries are still relevant to the relationship particularly at the level of attitudes and values and although similarities in the mother company approaches to their subsidiaries are present, national specificities may nevertheless be detected.

New product development proficiency and multi-country product rollout timeliness

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to address a gap in the understanding of the indirect effects of marketing and technical factors on time efficiency in developing a new product and international new product launch. Design/methodology/approach: This paper adopts a contingency perspective in examining the relationships between antecedents and on-time completion (or timeliness) of new product development (NPD) and international new product rollout (INPR). A conceptual framework is tested based on data obtained on 232 NPD projects undertaken by Korean firms. Findings: The results show that NPD proficiencies mediate to a greater or lesser extent the effects of key antecedents (e.g. cross-functional linkages, project fit with available marketing resources, and effective coordination of headquarters-subsidiary/agents' activities) on timeliness in NPD and INPR. Research limitations/implications: Empirical research on the role of marketing and technical proficiencies in improving NPD timeliness and rollout timeliness in the context of international NPD affirms the importance of adopting a contingency perspective in examining the antecedents of NPD and multi-market entry timeliness. Practical implications: This paper lends insight into the role of overseas subsidiaries or agents in helping to build the technical proficiencies of emerging country companies. Originality/value: This is the first review focusing on the mediating influences on time dimensions (e.g. timeliness) in multi-country product launches. © Emerald Group Publishing Limited.