Expatriation and its effect on headquarters' attention in the multinational enterprise

The legitimacy of subsidiary issue selling: Balancing positive & negative attention from corporate headquarters

“…This builds on Bouquet & Birkinshaw's (2008b) theorisation on the 'cooptation' of subsidiary 'elites' across the MNE or a 'reverse pollination' approach similar to Harzing's (2002) depiction of expatriates. This finding challenges the perspective that expatriates carry more weight in attracting CHQ attention than host country managers (Plourde et al 2014). Ultimately, the success of subsidiary issue selling in the MNE is not based on subsidiary characteristics alone, but more specifically, the personal legitimacy of subsidiary 'sellers' and the knowledge they have regarding the corporate agenda are key explanatory variables.…”

“…We argue that intervention may occur directly or indirectly. 'Direct' CHQ intervention may result in increased monitoring (Taggart, 1997), expatriate deployment (Plourde et al 2014) or even mandate removal (Dorrenbacher & Gammelgaard, 2010). Resistance and scepticism towards the subsidiary, which can lead to the dismissal of future proposals, also represent a direct form of negative CHQ attention.…”

Sense and sensibility: Testing an attention‐based view of organizational responses to social issues

“…Finally, the attention‐based view suggests that small differences, or contingencies, might have significant effects on the attention focus of decision makers and on organizational attention that ultimately will have an impact on organizational outcomes. As an empirical example, Plourde et al () test the effects of expatriates on distribution of attention showing how small changes in attention structures impact allocation of organizational attention. In the same vein, Kacperczyk () suggests that changes in the structures of attention have different effects in different stakeholder groups and that firm performance is only positively associated with increased attention to primary stakeholders.…”

“…Whereas, these numbers signal the relevance of the attention‐based view, a closer look into this collection of both conceptual and empirical studies also indicates the versatility and productivity of the attention‐based view to the understanding of organizational behavior. It has been successfully used to explain organizational decision‐making processes (Barnett, ; Shepherd, McMullen, & Ocasio, ), organizational change (Cho & Hambrick, ; Eggers & Kaplan, ), management innovation (Chen, Bu, Wu, and Liang, ; Ren & Guo, ), internationalization strategies (Bouquet, Morrison, & Birkinshaw, ; Levy, ), and expatriation effects (Plourde, Parker, & Schaan, ), to cite a few.…”

“…Furthermore, the role of attention structures in the model of situated attention as proposed by Ocasio () is only modestly explored (Jacobides, ; Ren & Guo, ; Yu et al, ). Plourde et al () explore the attention‐based view by investigating the role of expatriates, as part of attention structures, in shaping organizational attention of multinational enterprises. A more recent effort is the qualitative research developed by Vuori and Huy () that explains the behavior of Nokia in the period 2005–2010.…”