Business Commons^™

Emerging Threats For Mnc Subsidiaries And The Cycle Of Decline, Pamela Sharkey Scott, P. T. Gibbons Prof

Articles

Purpose – Subsidiary units have traditionally feared relocation of their activities to lower-cost locations. The authors identify other emerging threats which are changing how multinational corporations (MNCs) manage their subsidiary units, and develop a cycle of subsidiary decline demonstrating how these threats can undermine a subsidiary's position within the MNC.

Design/methodology/approach – The paper presents the results of a survey targeted at over 1,100 subsidiary CEOs of MNCs located in Ireland, a program of in-depth interviews of 24 subsidiary CEOs/directors, and a review of the literature relating to MNC and subsidiary management, are combined to identify emerging threats to subsidiary …

From Federations To Global Factories: Assessing The Contribution Of The Subsidiary Middle Manager In Today’S Mne, Donal O'Brien, Pamela Sharkey Scott, Pat Gibbons

Articles

The evolution of MNEs (Multinational Enterprises) from rigid and hierarchical structures to more distributed authority and autonomy led to the theoretical justification for conceptualising them as a federative rather than unitary organisations (Ghoshal and Bartlett, 1990). Fundamental to the Federative MNE is the suggestion that subsidiary units, through their own actions, can modify the power base and influence MNE strategy ‘from below’ (Andersson et al., 2007). Considerable research highlights the potential of subsidiary units for knowledge creation and initiative (Birkinshaw, 1997, Rugman and Verbeke, 2001, Williams, 2009), but to date it has failed to confirm that MNEs actually operate as …