The evolution of technology in multinational enterprises: the role of creative subsidiaries

Quo vadis? The entry into new technologies in advanced foreign subsidiaries of the multinational enterprise

“…The general explanation for the internationalization of technological activity is the MNC's initial need to adapt products to local market needs, which in some cases leads on to more sophisticated technological roles and responsibilities among foreign subsidiaries (Wortmann, 1990;Håkanson & Nobel, 1993a;Patel & Pavitt, 1998;Papanastassiou, 1999;Pearce, 1999a;Cantwell & Piscitello, 2000). Additional drivers include slackening supply of new technology from the parent company or inadequate technology for the large foreign markets, the need to provide more challenging work to retain skilled local employees, or the acquisition of "incidental" R&D units (Ronstadt, 1978;Håkanson & Zander, 1986).…”

Transferência internacional de conhecimento na multinacional: quando o jogo competitivo multimercado se sobrepõe aos mecanismos internos de coordenação

“…Em EMNs com forte centralização na sede corporativa de todos os processos de decisão -e onde as subsidiárias têm pouca, ou nenhuma, autonomia -o papel das subsidiárias fica algo limitado à adoção de produtos, processos e inovações emanadas da sede. No entanto, em diferentes formatos organizacionais, pode caber à subsidiária um papel mais ativo, nomeadamente na própria geração de inovações (PEARCE, 1999;FROST e outros, 2002;MUDAMBI, 2005;MUDAMBI e outros, 2007). A inovação local, por subsidiárias autônomas, permite à EMN ser mais adaptável às diferenças nacionais e ser genericamente mais competitiva.…”

Domestic Sourcing by Foreign-Owned Subsidiaries

“…With a few exceptions (Perez and Sanchez, 2002;Tavares and Young, 2006;Williams, 2005), direct investigation of the role of strategic decision-making autonomy for the development of domestic sourcing has not been a preoccupation of the literature. However, positive relationships have been found between factors that are connected to strategic decision-making autonomy and the capacity to exploit locally available assets (Andersson and Forsgren, 2000;Birkinshaw and Hood, 1998;Pearce, 1999;Schmid and Schurig, 2003). This literature suggests that strategic decision-making autonomy leads to lower costs of conducting interorganisational transactions because of the shorter chain of command, the building up of trust between network partners, and the ability to innovate in relationships with domestic suppliers (see figure 1).…”

“…A number of studies have found that mandates connected to operational decisionmaking autonomy have a positive effect on the performance of FOS (Hood and Taggart, 1997;Pearce, 1999). Such developments are common in the areas of innovation and R&D activities (Cantwell and Iammarino, 2001;Tavares and Pearce, 2001).…”