Balancing the trade-off between learning prospects and spillover risks: MNC subsidiaries’ vertical linkage patterns in developed countries

This paper investigates local vertical linkages of foreign subsidiaries and the dual role of such linkages as conduits for learning as well as potential channels for spillovers to competitors. On the basis of data from 97 subsidiaries, we analyze the quality of such linkages under varying levels of competition and subsidiary capabilities. Our theoretical development and the results from the analysis document a far more complex and dynamic relationship between levels of competition and MNCs’ local participation in knowledge intensive activities, i.e. learning and spillovers, than previous studies do. We find a curvilinear relationship between the extent of competitive pressure and the quality of local linkages confirming our argument of a trade-off between learning prospects and spillover risks. Furthermore, the level of subsidiary capabilities moderates this relationship.     

MNCs and linkages creation: Evidence from a peripheral area

MNCs’ spillovers occur in the local economy through linkages creation, but little it is known so far on the factors affecting the creation of some linkages rather than others by foreign investors. Adopting as a spatial unit of analysis a peripheral sub-national sub-regional area so far little examined by current IB developmental literature, this study investigates how foreign subsidiaries’ local market strategy and organizational structure impact on local linkages creation. Given the number of features shared by the peripheral sub-national sub-regional area under analysis with less developed economies, broader policy implications are drawn for local economic development in less developed countries. Using original survey data, we find that linkages creation is greater when foreign investors entertain market rival relationships with other foreign units and have a competence-creating scope within the corporate organizational structure. The phenomenon also occurs, although to a lesser extent, when foreign investors with a competence-exploiting scope do not compete with other foreign units. Conversely, no linkages are established by rival competence-exploiting subsidiaries.     

Foreign subsidiaries as vehicles of industry 4.0: The case of foreign subsidiaries in a post-transition economy

We ask whether foreign subsidiaries may work as entities that neutralize the threat of marginalization of the post-transition economies in terms of Industry 4.0 (I4.0) adoption. Building on a conceptual model of foreign subsidiaries as I4.0 vehicles, we conducted interviews with 440 foreign subsidiaries from the manufacturing sector established in Poland. The originality of the paper concerns three key issues. First, our study shows that the strategy adopted by the headquarters is critical, as it impacts the possibility of foreign subsidiaries to act as vehicles of I4.0 transformation in host economies. Second, embeddedness in local environment guarantees the transition of knowledge, whereas the innovation capacity of a foreign subsidiary does not seem to play any role. Third, we focus on foreign subsidiaries established in a post-transition economy. The results of our research enrich the literature on types of foreign subsidiaries in transmitting and diffusing the knowledge received from headquarters and expose the prominent role of links with host market entities.     

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.     

Organizing for knowledge flows within MNCs

This paper conceptualizes the multinational corporation (MNC) as a network of knowledge flows and argues that, within the same MNC, subsidiary strategic roles can be expected to differ in terms of the extent and directionality of knowledge flows between a focal subsidiary and the rest of the corporation. Building on this framework, the paper hypothesizes and empirically tests for systematic associations between a subsidiary's knowledge-flow based strategic role and the systems and processes linking the subsidiary to the rest of the corporation. The empirical data, collected from 359 subsidiaries of major US, Japanese, and European MNCs (i) provide strong support to the notion of differentiated knowledge flow roles as well as differentiated systems and processes within MNCs, and (ii) suggest that innovation by foreign subsidiaries is more typically the result of autonomous initiative by the subsidiaries rather than strategic directives issued from corporate headquarters.     

A closer look at the productivity advantage of foreign affiliates

In analyzing firm productivity in Belgium, this article shows empirically that both scale and efficiency contribute positively to the typical productivity advantage of foreign affiliates. Stochastic production frontier estimation using the translog functional form indicates that foreign subsidiaries exploit economies of scale more fully and benefit from better (transferred) technological capabilities than Belgian national firms (i.e., Belgian owned firms without subsidiaries abroad). Belgian multinational enterprises (MNEs), i.e., Belgian owned firms with at least one subsidiary abroad, resemble foreign‐based MNEs in possessing specific technological advantages. While the increasing globalization has facilitated the realization of scale effects across borders, this article shows that the development of technological capabilities/advantages is still a prerequisite for MNEs to compete successfully abroad.     

Foreign direct investment and productivity spillovers in Irish manufacturing industry: evidence from plant level panel data

It is often argued that foreign firms may enhance the productivity of indigenous firms in an economy, through forward or backward linkages. Such externality effects typically are called “productivity spillovers”. In terms of foreign direct investment (FDI), Ireland is one of the most globalized economies in the world, having pursued a strategy of promoting investment by foreign companies for over 40 years. This article examines possible productivity spillovers from foreign‐owned firms to indigenous firms in the Irish manufacturing sector, using plant‐level data on all manufacturing firms for the period 1991–1998. Despite Irish policy commitment to building linkages between foreign and domestic firms, we find only weak evidence of spillovers and this evidence is sensitive to the definition and measurement of foreign presence.     

International strategy implementation: Roles of subsidiaries, operational capabilities, and procedural justice

This study develops a framework to propose how the differentiation of operational capabilities (coordination and configuration) and procedural justice fits to different subsidiary roles, and the relationship between the fit and the subsidiary performance. The findings are based on a survey of sixty-two foreign subsidiaries in Taiwan. The results indicate that (1) the operational capabilities and procedural justice of the top-performing subsidiaries can be differentiated according to their distinct strategic roles, and the differentiation exhibits an ideal profile for each role as shown in Fig. 2; (2) the extent to which a subsidiary fits the ideal profile associated with its role is positively related to the subsidiary's performance. The authors discuss the theoretical and managerial implications and provide some suggestions for the future study.     

Spillovers through backward linkages and the export performance of business services. Evidence from a sample of Italian firms

We provide evidence on the role of spillovers through vertical linkages in service firms’ internationalisation process. We combine input–output coefficients with region-level information on downstream manufacturing sector exports to build a measure of spillovers through backward linkages, which we assess as a systematic determinant of Italian BS firms’ export status. Once considered firm and sector specificities, export spillovers especially matter for exporting to high-income economies outside Europe. This finding originates from higher sunk costs stemming from greater distance to the destination market and tougher competition within the destination market. Furthermore, the spillovers’ geographical scope is mainly local. We thus contribute to international business theory by generalising existing evidence from case studies on the importance of buyer–supplier relationships for service firms’ internationalisation across several BS sectors. Our research carries important implications for international business practices as well, as joining networks with internationalised customers may play an important role in enhancing BS firms’ exports, regardless of the BS supplied.     

Technological spillovers from multinational firms

This paper aims to identify genuine technological spillovers from multinational firms (MNEs). To this end, we use data on R&D from MNEs to measure spillovers, while most of the existing literature uses output to measure the foreign presence in an industry (what we call output-based spillovers). In line with the existing literature, we distinguish between horizontal spillovers (i.e., intra-industry linkages) and vertical spillovers (i.e., backward—or downstream—and forward—or upstream—inter-industry linkages). Our results show that the three types of technological spillovers from MNEs are positive, with the horizontal spillovers the larger ones, followed by backward spillovers. The effect of forward spillovers is much smaller in magnitude. Moreover, we find that not controlling for industry size (i.e., technological spillovers from all firms in an industry) leads to underestimating both horizontal and backward spillovers from MNEs, and to overestimating forward spillovers from MNEs. Finally, we find that the distinction between technological and output-based spillovers is of great relevance. The size of backward technological spillovers is approximately 44% of the size of output-based backward spillovers, while for horizontal spillovers both types of spillovers are quite similar. Importantly, output-based forward spillovers are negative while technological forward spillovers are positive.     

An exploration of multinational enterprise knowledge resources and foreign subsidiary performance

Successful international expansion requires that parent firms simultaneously transfer multiple MNE knowledge resources and their foreign subsidiaries effectively absorb and utilize the knowledge. In this study, we examine the relationships between multiple knowledge resources (technological and marketing knowledge), the relatedness between parents and foreign subsidiaries, and subsidiary performance. Relatedness is specifically linked to the type of knowledge being transferred from the parent (i.e., technological relatedness versus market relatedness). We hypothesize that subsidiary performance improves with (1) the integration of a parent firm's technological and marketing knowledge resources, (2) high technological (market) relatedness between a parent firm and subsidiaries for transfer of parent technological (market) knowledge and (3) the co-presence of high technological and market relatedness. We find general support in our analysis of pooled cross-sectional data on more than 4000 observations of foreign subsidiaries from 572 Japanese MNEs across 47 countries. Theoretical implications and future research are discussed.     

Productivity spillovers from foreign direct investment: evidence from Turkish micro-level data

This paper analyzes the productivity spillovers from foreign direct investment (FDI) using Turkish firm-level data for a more recent time period, 2003–2010, which coincides with significant FDI inflows both in manufacturing and service sectors in the region. The empirical model is derived from endogenous growth theory whereby the rate of technological progress is partly determined by technology transfers and spillovers from international contacts, our exclusive focus being on FDI-induced spillovers. The impact of FDI onto the firm-level productivity is evaluated via the channels of horizontal and vertical linkages. The empirical results show that horizontal linkages decrease the productivity of firms, whereas vertical linkages exert a positive impact onto the local productivity levels, thereby drawing attention of policy makers towards strengthening of supplier–buyer relationship between local and multinationals in order to optimize the benefits from FDI. This study also acknowledges the heterogeneity of local (foreign) firms and their differential capacity to absorb (exude) the FDI-induced externalities.     

The liability of closeness: Business relatedness and foreign subsidiary performance

It is widely accepted that business relatedness, defined as the extent to which a foreign subsidiary is related to its parent's core business, has a positive effect on subsidiary performance. With a sample of 165 Japanese subsidiaries located in China, however, we found that modestly related subsidiaries, on average, outperformed both unrelated and closely related subsidiaries, and that closely related subsidiaries performed poorly especially when the parent had a heavy majority ownership in the subsidiary and the subsidiary was at its early stage of operating in the host market. Our results indicate that being too closely related to the parent could be potentially detrimental, suggesting a liability of closeness.     

Explaining the performance of divested overseas subsidiaries

We examine the post-divestment performance of subsidiaries that have been divested by their foreign owners and have subsequently been acquired by domestic owners. Drawing on Hymer’s classic explanation of firm internationalization and on the resource-based view dimension of internalization theory, we suggest that the differences in terms of the degree to which FSAs are independent from the linkages to the parent firm will be reflected in the variation in the performance effect of a foreign-to-domestic sale of the business. We argue that the negative performance effect of a foreign-to-domestic sale of a subsidiary is lower (1) for older subsidiaries, (2) for subsidiaries oriented toward the domestic, and (3) when the foreign parent firm is located outside the subsidiary’s geographic region. By using propensity score matching and difference-in-differences estimations, we examine the proposed effects and provide novel insights on the performance implications of the foreign-to-local ownership changes.     

Multinational enterprises and domestic wages: The contingent effect of skill composition

While previous literature has extensively shown that foreign-owned firms pay higher wages than domestically owned firms, the examination of intra-industry wage spillovers between foreign-owned and domestic companies has received much less attention, particularly among non-core EU economies. In this paper, we contribute to the literature on wage spillovers of foreign multinational enterprises onto domestic firms by considering whether the presence of MNE subsidiaries in the Spanish manufacturing industry affects wages in domestic firms in the same industry. Although no evidence supports the existence of wage spillovers from MNEs onto domestic firms on aggregate, we show that the effect of this outside presence on domestic wages is significantly more positive in step with the higher level of workers’ skills in domestic firms. Because only workers in domestic firms with a highly skilled workforce will benefit from wage spillovers from the foreign firm presence in the industry, policy makers need bear in mind that not all FDI will automatically generate spillover benefits to domestic firms.     

Linking corporate productivity to foreign direct investment: An empirical assessment

This paper examines whether foreign firms generate productivity spillovers. Despite the relevance of this question to public policy, previous studies have failed to find consistent and conclusive evidence to support the existence of positive spillovers. Using previously unexploited firm-level data over the 1994–1999 period, we attempt to contribute to the literature on productivity spillovers from FDI by analysing the Portuguese manufacturing industry. The results indicate that foreign firms in the same industry of the observed firms (horizontal spillovers) and linkages between foreign firms and their local suppliers or customers (vertical spillovers) do not impact significantly on firms’ productivity. Moreover, we detected no differences on productivity spillovers associated to firm-specific characteristics.     

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.     

Technology spillovers: Kenya and Malaysia compared

This paper aimed at investigating the existence of productivity spillovers and their transmission channels in both Kenya and Malaysia firm-level panel data from the manufacturing sector for the period 2000–2005. Both countries have a long history of relying on FDI in industrial development. The existing literature on productivity spillovers suggests that productivity spillovers may be one of the most important effects that foreign MNEs impart to local firms in developing countries. Yet still, few studies exist in both countries on productivity spillovers and their transmission channels. Three spillover channels were examined: demonstration, competition, and information. In addition, the backward linkage channel was examined for the case of Malaysia. The results reveal that there is limited evidence of negative productivity spillovers from foreign firms to domestic firms through the competition effects in Kenya. In Malaysia, there is evidence of positive spillovers from foreign-owned firms to domestic firms through the demonstration effects. In addition, there is evidence of negative spillovers through the competition effects as well as backward linkages. There is also evidence of positive productivity spillovers from domestic firms to foreign-owned firms through backward linkages. Productivity spillovers are found to be dependent on the technology gap.     

Sourcing or sharing in MNE networks? National headquarters and foreign subsidiaries as knowledge conduits in SMOPECs

Multinational enterprises (MNEs) act as important conduits of knowledge in advanced, small open economies (SMOPECs). This paper constructs a typology of asymmetric knowledge patterns by comparing net knowledge flows – or differences in sourcing and sharing – in the dual networks of headquarters of national MNEs and subsidiaries of foreign MNEs. We find both act as internal contributors to the MNE, but subsidiaries are more likely to act as external contributors to local partners or dual receivers of net knowledge flows from both networks, and headquarters as dual contributors to both networks. R&D intensity of the subsidiary and of the country are associated with different knowledge patterns of subsidiaries. Inclusion of asymmetric knowledge sourcing and sharing in internal corporate and external business networks contributes to our understanding of knowledge flow directionality via the focal unit, and the roles of national and foreign MNEs as knowledge conduits in SMOPECs.     

The art of rhetoric: Host country political hostility and the rhetorical strategies of foreign subsidiaries in developing economies

Multinational enterprises (MNEs) often pay close attention to host country environments and prudently manage relationships with host country stakeholders. However, little attention has been paid to how the foreign subsidiaries of developed country multinational enterprises (DMNEs) communicate with host country stakeholders in developing economies. This paper investigates how host country political hostility influences DMNE subsidiaries’ rhetorical strategies. Using 485,496 Sina Weibo posts by subsidiaries of 71 DMNEs between 2010 and 2018, this paper demonstrates that political hostility has a negative influence on subsidiaries’ rhetorical emotionality and corporate social responsibility (CSR) rhetorical intensity, and has a positive effect on rhetorical clarity. Both bilateral trade and local subsidiary top executive strengthen the influence of political hostility on rhetorical emotionality and rhetorical clarity. The findings shed new light on how DMNE subsidiaries gain and maintain legitimacy in developing economies and how subsidiaries deploy post-entry rhetorical strategies as a response to host country political hostility.