The attention-based view and the multinational corporation: Review and research agenda

The attention‐based view: Review and conceptual extension towards situated attention

“…Tourish & Willmott, 2015), yet these guides provide a valid quality indicator (e.g. Baldacchino et al., 2015; Mallett et al., 2019) and thereby suit our purpose to provide a systematic review about the dispersed and extant ABV research (Andrews et al., 2022). Third, we excluded all articles not including the term *attention* in the title, abstract or keywords.…”

“…International business scholars have applied the concept of attention structures to study why headquarters (HQ) allocate more attention to some subsidiaries in comparison to others (see Andrews et al., 2022). Bouquet and Birkinshaw (2008), for instance, show that HQ's attention to subsidiaries is channelled by (a) the voice, alias the managerial players of the subsidiary engaging in profile‐building and initiative‐taking and (b) the weight, alias the structural position a subsidiary occupies in the corporation due to its strategic significance (cf.…”

“…The ABV has triggered a plethora of theoretical and empirical research illuminating highly diverse organizational phenomena, such as resource allocation in multinational enterprises (MNEs) (e.g. Andrews et al., 2022; Belenzon et al., 2019; Plourde et al., 2014), adaptation to radical change (e.g. Kammerlander & Ganter, 2015; Maula et al., 2013), responses to grand challenges (e.g.…”

And the subsidiary lives on: Harnessing complex realities in the contemporary MNE

“…Importantly, the three dimensions of complexity are not mutually exclusive. The subsidiary must ensure it pays sufficient attention to its many stimuli -such as the specificities of internal and external actors (Andrews, Fainshmidt, Ambos, & Haensel, 2022) -regardless of whether a specific geographic scope remains or a broader or narrower mandate exists. As MNEs and subsidiaries evolve, the dynamics among these actors do, too (Cuervo-Cazurra, Mudambi, & Pedersen, 2019).…”

“…However, understanding the applicability of theories and how their mechanisms vary across contexts is central to avoiding fallacies, such as when a theory was developed for one level but inappropriately applied at a different level. For instance, applications of the attention-based view are often aggregated at the organizational level, overlooking the role of the attention seeker and attention giver (Andrews et al, 2022). However, the allocation of attention in an MNE is a dynamic multilevel process that unfolds through the interplay of individual actors and formal organizational structures (Ocasio, Laamanen, & Vaara, 2018).…”