跨国公司组织结构与海外子公司战略绩效关系研究

通过定义海外子公司的当地化程度与资源在跨国公司组织内的横向流量两个维度,建立跨国公司组织结构演进模型。并利用统计技术对跨国公司组织结构与海外子公司战略绩效关系的相关假设进行实证检验。结果表明,网络组织结构并不能导致海外子公司获得最优的战略绩效。     

跨国公司海外子公司研究综述及最新进展

文章按照分析的层级和对MNC概念化两个维度,回顾评析了跨国公司海外子公司研究所经历的4个阶段。回顾研究发现,随着跨国公司海外子公司的不断成熟,学者们越来越多地将研究焦点从关注跨国公司整体转移到其海外子公司层面,一些海外子公司在公司网络中的战略性作用不断增强。此外,对其所依据的主要基础理论进行了回顾分析发现,它们的演化和融合趋势日渐明显。在此基础上,总结了海外子公司研究的最新进展,即下属单位角色发展、下属单位创业和逆向护佑研究。     

子公司网络嵌入假说

一个公司的外部商业网络可以被认为是一种战略资源,这一资源的价值可以用网络中的嵌入程度来衡量,跨国公司的情况证实了这一重要性.子公司与外部顾客、供应商等建立的紧密关系对于它的绩效有重要影响.外部商业网络嵌入对子公司的销售增长、市场份额、利润率以及对于跨国公司其他部门能力的发展都有积极的影响.有迹象表明子公司的嵌入程度和对跨国公司战略决策的影响是正相关的.子公司网络嵌入的重要性在跨国公司中得以认识,但没有人解释为什么子公司嵌入会有差异.在这篇文章中笔者提出跨国公司总部采用的控制机制会影响国外子公司的嵌入程度,通过研究我们提出了一系列假说.并且通过实际结果证明了上述结论是正确的.此外我们还讨论了关于跨国公司管理的一些推断.     

子公司网络嵌入假说

一个公司的外部商业网络可以被认为是一种战略资源,这一资源的价值可以用网络中的嵌入程度来衡量,跨国公司的情况证实了这一重要性。子公司与外部顾客、供应商等建立的紧密关系对于它的绩效有重要影响。外部商业网络嵌入对子公司的销售增长、市场份额、利润率以及对于跨国公司其他部门能力的发展都有积极的影响。有迹象表明子公司的嵌入程度和对跨国公司战略决策的影响是正相关的。子公司网络嵌入的重要性在跨国公司中得以认识,但没有人解释为什么子公司嵌入会有差异。在这篇文章中笔者提出跨国公司总部采用的控制机制会影响国外子公司的嵌入程度,通过研究我们提出了一系列假说。并且通过实际结果证明了上述结论是正确的。此外我们还讨论了关于跨国公司管理的一些推断。     

跨国公司子公司能力发展及其知识转移角色演进

跨国公司子公司在知识转移过程中,从被动的母公司知识的接受者,到主动的当地知识的获取者,再到整个跨国公司网络的知识贡献者,和子公司能力发展不无关系.本文以此为着眼点,对子公司的能力种类、内外部能动性表现、子公司能力发展以及特定优势的形成发展模式进行分析,并将子公司的能力发展阶段与子公司知识转移角色变化相结合,探讨了子公司战略地住的变化.     

跨国公司子公司角色分类问题研究综述

改革开放以来,各类跨国公司纷纷进入中国,跨国公司子公司的战略角色也随着中国经济的发展和市场化遘程的推进而不断发生变化．中国企业也积极探索“走出去”,进行跨国经营。在这种情况下,本文将最近二十年跨国公司子公司的相关文献进行总结,研究跨国公司子公司战略角色的分类,有利于国内企业参与和跨国公司之间的市场竞争,可以为国内企业的跨国经营提供经验借鉴,同时可以为政府的产业政策提供参考。     

如何提升跨国公司子公司知识管理能力

本文从跨国公司子公司知识管理能力培育的必要性和重要性入手,利用环境-战略-业绩的理论框架来研究竞争强度和市场动态性对跨国公司子公司知识管理能力的影响,以及由此对跨国公司子公司业绩的影响。     

跨国公司中母公司分散控制权的动因分析

随着经济全球化步伐的不断加快,跨国公司的组织形态和战略动机也逐渐发生变化,目前跨国公司主要通过海外子公司获取资源,子公司与母公司之间的关系也从子公司对母公司依赖向两者相互依赖转变,跨国公司治理理论研究方向也集中到"分散控制权"内容上。母公司分散控制权动因主要包括:跨国公司规模不断扩张,东道国技术和管理水平存在差异,资源供给和管理需求之间的矛盾日益突出,海外子公司的战略地位不断提升且战略角色动态变化,跨国公司内部母公司与子公司之间存在管理能力临界点。提出应坚持集中股权与分散控制权并存,培养"学习型"企业等对策建议,以促进我国跨国公司管理体制的不断完善。     

跨国公司内部竞合的决定因素剖析

随着子公司对资源以及知识共享程度、价值链合理化程度、共同功能整合程度等的提高,无论是以双边还是多边的方式,外国子公司之间的合作性越来越强,目的是为了追逐协同效应;与此同时,它们还为了争夺母公司的资源、公司支持、系统定位以及市场扩张而进行竞争.这种跨国公司内部的"竞合"现象的出现也进一步表明了国际市场竞争的加剧,而影响跨国公司内部竞合关系的因素很多.随着跨国公司的进一步发展,对跨国公司内部子公司间的竞合会表现出越来越复杂的形式.     

不确定性与中国企业海外子公司经营绩效

关于不确定性对对外直接投资企业绩效影响的现有文献聚焦于对跨国公司整体绩效的影响,而忽略了对异质性海外子公司经营绩效的深化考察.文章运用2007 ～2018年中国海外子公司面板数据,检验了东道国不确定性对海外子公司经营绩效的影响.研究发现:东道国不确定性显著降低了海外子公司经营绩效;不确定性对海外企业绩效的负向影响在制度质量较低、金融发展水平较低、非相邻的东道国尤为显著,并且这一负向影响更显著地作用于未进行互联网化的海外子公司.机制检验发现,不确定性通过减少跨国公司对子公司资源投入、增加子公司成本、降低东道国消费需求对子公司经营绩效产生负向影响.     

How do firms evolve? The patterns of technological evolution of semiconductor subsidiaries

This study draws on concepts from international strategy and evolutionary economics to investigate the development of innovative ability within multinational subsidiaries. The paper develops hypotheses regarding the evolution of subsidiary innovative abilities, and the changes across time of their knowledge sourcing and sharing patterns with other parts of the multinational enterprise and host country firms.The paper analyzes patent data pertaining to foreign subsidiaries of US semiconductor firms and finds support for subsidiary technological development—there are positive changes in the scale and scope of innovative activity across time. The results also suggest that subsidiaries are increasingly embedded in host country knowledge networks—as they mature, subsidiaries increasingly learn and share knowledge locally. Evidence of increasing integration with other firms within the multinational enterprise is weaker.     

British co-operative societies as retail innovators: Interpreting the early stages of the self-service revolution

Multinational companies and their subsidiaries have been important actors in the world economy. However, we know relatively little about the evolution of subsidiaries and their adaption to host country conditions. This article is a case study of a Norwegian subsidiary of the Canadian mining multinational Falconbridge Nickel Mines Ltd. It examines what autonomy the subsidiary had, how the autonomy was used, its development of knowledge and how it adapted to Norwegian ways of doing business. The article shows that subsidiaries may contribute significantly to the development of their mother companies. It highlights four factors that influenced the degree of autonomy and the evolution of subsidiaries in the inter-war era; namely host country politics, the line of business, the configuration of knowledge within the given multinational company and in case of acquisitions; the prehistory of the subsidiary.     

Characteristics and influences of multinational subsidiary entrepreneurial culture: The case of the advertising sector

This paper undertakes an exploratory study into the characteristics of entrepreneurial culture of the multinational subsidiary; and, into the associated influences and manifestations linked to multinational corporation (MNC) and environmental contexts. The theme of multinational subsidiary entrepreneurial culture is an unexplored theme in the literature, and has considerable research and managerial significance. This qualitative research is based on eight multinational subsidiaries in the advertising sector in the UK. The evidence suggests that the constituents of multinational subsidiary entrepreneurial culture include global vision, entrepreneurial orientation and entrepreneurial MNC network management. The related influences and manifestations refer to subsidiary autonomy, target market servicing and responsiveness to local environmental conditions. In addition, the findings show that while entrepreneurial behaviour was evident in all investigated subsidiaries, its locus varied significantly. Specifically, entrepreneurship in multinational subsidiaries can be subsidiary-, headquarters-, or jointly-driven.     

Knowledge development in MNC subsidiaries: The influence of MNC internal and external knowledge and control mechanisms

In this study, we examine the influence of control mechanisms and internal and external knowledge on multinational company (MNC) subsidiary knowledge development. Previous research stresses the importance of these factors for subsidiary behavior, but nonetheless they remain underexplored in the context of subsidiary knowledge development. The study is based on questionnaire data from 161 MNC subsidiaries in China and Finland. The results indicate that MNC internal and external knowledge, as well as decision‐making autonomy of MNC subsidiaries, positively influence knowledge development in MNC subsidiaries. Conversely, the importance of knowledge development as a performance evaluation criterion did not show any influence on MNC subsidiary knowledge development. © 2008 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.     

MNE subsidiary evolution from sales to innovation: Looking inside the black box

Whereas the innovation-related evolution of multinational enterprise (MNE) subsidiaries has been extensively studied, the numerous sales subsidiaries in MNE networks have received little attention in this context. This study examines the evolution process of a sales subsidiary towards acquiring innovation-related capabilities and actively supporting innovation activities of a MNE. The evolution is explained in terms of technical information flow in an in-depth case study of a semiconductor MNEs’ sales subsidiary in South Korea. We find that the evolution of the sales subsidiary to innovation support has been enabled by a combination of subsidiary-related, lead market-related and event-related factors. We contribute to the literature on MNE subsidiary evolution by studying the unexplored evolution of a sales subsidiary. We combine the general framework of subsidiary evolution with the lead user perspective and suggest directions for potential theory extensions on MNE subsidiary evolution.     

The configuration of employee retention practices in multinational corporations’ foreign subsidiaries

This paper contributes to turnover research by deriving a typology of retention practices and investigating their applicability in multinational corporations’ (MNCs) foreign subsidiaries in the light of home- and host-country effects. Linking institutional and strategic HRM perspectives, the paper then proposes a conceptual framework examining how MNCs can maximize their retention capacity. Specifically, MNCs need to align their transferable home-country retention practices with overall strategy and complement them with flexible context-specific practices to allow for adaptability across different subsidiaries. It is further argued that characteristics of the headquarters–subsidiary relationship will influence the relative importance of context-generalizable versus context-specific retention practices and that the relevant set of practices for each subsidiary then needs to be configured individually.     

Absorptive capacity in foreign subsidiaries: The effects of language-sensitive recruitment,language training,and interunit knowledge transfer

Are multinational corporations able to enhance the development of absorptive capacity in foreign subsidiaries through language-oriented human resource management (HRM) practices? Taking into account that a shared language enhances absorptive capacity and that many multinational corporations are multilingual entities, this question is relevant but given little focused attention in international business research. In this paper, we hypothesize that two language-oriented HRM practices – language-sensitive recruitment and language training – enhance absorptive capacity in foreign subsidiaries. In addition, we hypothesize that interunit knowledge transfer partially mediates the positive relationship between these language-oriented HRM practices and absorptive capacity. Analyses of survey data derived at three points in time from 574 foreign subsidiary units in Japan provide support for these hypotheses.     

Regional location of multinational corporation subsidiaries and economic development contribution: Evidence from the UK

The regional location of multinational corporation (MNC) subsidiaries in their host country and their associated entrepreneurial output and networking activities are likely to affect their economic development contribution, measured in terms of technology and management know-how transfers; enhancement of innovativeness of other firms; and company spinoffs. This theme has considerable research and public policy value. We investigate the issue drawing from a large-scale study of 264 MNC subsidiaries based in the UK. The findings show that activities in developed regions are associated with higher economic development contribution than those in less developed regions. Moreover, entrepreneurial output and networking with partners external to the MNC system positively affect economic development contribution. Key implications of this study are that entrepreneurship critically influences economic development contribution, underlying the importance of the MNC subsidiary research stream; and that the policy practice of supply-side measures fostering entrepreneurial output and embeddedness in local networks seems to be appropriate to pursue.     

The overlooked distinction of multinational enterprise subsidiary learning: Its managerial and entrepreneurial learning modes

The theme concerning modes of learning in multinational subsidiaries is the focus of enquiry in the current study. This theme is closely linked to the issue of how subsidiaries become alert and seize opportunities. Such an investigation is also important for management practice because effective subsidiary learning can render sustainable competitive advantage in the host country. We performed an in-depth case examination on six multinational subsidiaries of a large Finnish firm. We identify two learning modes of multinational subsidiaries that we refer to as managerial and entrepreneurial learning. We find that managerial learning shares characteristics with the systems-structural learning perspective; is facilitated by embeddedness of the subsidiary in the MNE system; and, transferred in the MNE through many conventional and reverse knowledge flows. On the contrary, entrepreneurial learning shares characteristics with the interpretive learning perspective; is facilitated by embeddedness of the subsidiary in the host country; and, transferred in the MNE through relatively fewer reverse knowledge flows. The distinction between these two learning modes and their discrete characteristics enlighten past research that has largely failed to pinpoint the importance of the two modes for MNE subsidiary activities.     

Multinational Subsidiary Evolution and Public Policy: Two Tales from the European Periphery

The paper explores the link between subsidiary evolution and public policy towards multinational enterprises (MNEs). The cases of two peripheral EU economies (Portugal and Ireland) are contrasted, both in terms of their inward investment policy stances and as regards differential evolutionary processes at subsidiary level unveiled by empirical results from a new survey of subsidiaries operating in those two host countries. After examining issues such as motivations underlying investment, subsidiaries roles/strategies and evolution (addressing distinct paths in subsidiary transition), the paper discusses the potential contribution of subsidiaries to host country development and what constitutes an appropriate policy towards multinationals. Explicit consideration is given to subsidiaries value-added scope and the density and quality of local linkages as key determinants of host country impact.