This study investigates how foreign subsidiaries gain attention from corporate headquarters. Using detailed questionnaire and archival data on 283 subsidiaries of multinational enterprises, our analysis revealed three significant findings. First, attention decisions are partially based on the structural positions that subsidiary units occupy within a corporate system-their "weight." Second, a subsidiary also has a "voice" of its own that it can use to attract attention. Third, the relationship between a subsidiary's voice and headquarters attention is moderated by two specific aspects of the subsidiary's historical situation: geographic distance and downstream competence.We would like to thank Duane Ireland, two anonymous AMJ reviewers,

This article provides a conceptual integration and synthesis of the literature on power and influence in multinational corporations (MNCs). To provide some focus to their synthesis, the authors concentrate on the situation facing, and the strategies pursued by, low-power actors within the MNC network, that is, actors who are currently positioned in relatively weak or low-status positions vis-à-vis other actors. Drawing inspiration from Ghoshal, the authors make a clear separation between ends and means: between the objectives pursued by low-power actors (their ends) and the strategies or tactics they pursue to achieve these objectives (their means). This approach allows the authors to pull together some strands of literature that had previously been entirely separate.

This study examines the performance consequences of international attention, defined as the extent to which headquarters executives in the multinational enterprise (MNE) invest time and effort in activities, communications, and discussions aimed at improving their understanding of the global marketplace. Using detailed questionnaire and archival data on 135 MNEs, our analysis revealed three significant findings. First, international attention can be operationalized as a meta-construct that consists of three interrelated and reinforcing dimensions. Second, international attention has a curvilinear (inverted U-shape) relationship with MNE performance. Third, the performance benefits of international attention increase with three categories of moderating factors: the international assignment experience of top executives, the independence of value-adding activities across country locations, and the degree of industry dynamism. Journal of International Business Studies (2009) 40, 108–131. doi:10.1057/jibs.2008.64

What are the boundary spanning activities undertaken by the Corporate Headquarters (HQ) executives of a Multinational Corporation? We address this question through a five‐year longitudinal case study of one company as it shifted from a traditional HQ in one location, to a dual HQ in two locations, to a virtual HQ split across multiple locations. By observing how HQ executives prioritized their time over the course of this transition, we identified four generic boundary spanning activities: two (spearheading and facilitating) focused on making connections across boundaries, two (reconciling and lubricating) focused on overcoming differences in worldview across boundaries. By considering these activities together, and how they vary in importance over time, we show how each boundary spanning activity adds value to the MNC and improves the effectiveness of the internal and external network. An important feature of our study is that we operationalize boundary spanning at the activity level, i.e., in terms of the specific actions taken by corporate HQ executives, to provide a more granular understanding of how boundary spanning works in practice.