What determines the value an MNC's headquarters adds to its own affiliates? In this paper, we shed light on this question by linking the embeddedness view of the multinational corporation to the literature on parenting advantage. We test our hypotheses on an original dataset of 124 manufacturing subsidiaries located in Europe. Our results indicate that the external embeddedness of the MNC is an antecedent to headquarters' value creation. We find that headquarters' investments into their own relationships with the subsidiaries' contexts are positively related to the value added by headquarters. Furthermore, this relationship is stronger when the subsidiary itself is strongly embedded. We discuss implications for the MNC literature, embeddedness research, and the literature on parenting and headquarters' roles. (authors' abstract)

published_or_final_version / abstract / Geography / Doctoral / Doctor of Philosophy

During the last years Switzerland has become the most favourite destination of the multinational corporations for localization of global or regional headquarters. The aim of this master thesis is to research the investment climate in each of the Switzerland's regions and to find out which factors play the most important role when multinational corporations are making decision about localization of their headquarters. In relation, I have defined another aim which is verification of the hypothesis which says that nowadays very important role in deciding about localization of multinational corporations' headquarters in Switzerland play soft factors. My first chapter explains the corporations' decision making about the localization of their headquarters. For that purpose I am using theoretical concepts for choosing business locations and above all the concept known as ,,emerging place decisions". At the end of the chapter I am going to confirm the practical usage of this concept through various study cases. In the second chapter I am going to concentrate on the multinational corporation's headquarters in Switzerland. I will describe not only the factors which influence its attractiveness, but also the situation and the characteristics of the headquarters in Switzerland. In the third chapter I am going to combine the obtained knowledge from the first two chapters in order to realize how cantonal offices function for promotion of the economics. First of all I will make a concept of the integrative management of the locations and furthermore I will mention the organization forms of these offices. Furthermore I will concentrate on their marketing point of view and on the cooperation between the cantons in this area. Finally in the fourth chapter I will first characterize the mutual trade and investment relations between the Czech Republic and Switzerland, including their promotion, and then I will try to evaluate the partnership between the Swiss and the Czech cities and regions.

In this paper, we examine responses to the conflicting institutional demands faced by an e-commerce subsidiary located in Sub-Saharan Africa and headquartered in Europe. Following an inductive approach, we gathered data from a 6-month participant-observation study and interviews with local managers. Our findings show that the subsidiary managers responded to conflicting institutional demands in a dynamic way, taking one response after the other. In some cases, the subsidiary managers responded in a way that they thought would be satisfactory but subsequent pressures from their headquarters or their local environment pushed them to adopt a new response. In other cases, the subsidiary managers intentionally adopted responses knowing that they would (have to) adopt another response later in the process.

How will digitalization influence the role of corporate headquarters (CHQs) and their relationships with their operating units? We recently asked 67 senior CHQ managers this question. The results suggest that CHQs expect to become more powerful and more involved in their operating units. These conclusions seem to be driven by perceptions that the ongoing digitalization will provide CHQ managers with more timely and better information. In this "Point of View", we discuss the potential pitfalls of such a narrative. We also offer ideas for how to avoid mistakes and ensure that CHQs increase their value-added in times of digitalization. In particular, we suggest that CHQs place emphasis on social interactions for data to be effectively collected and analyzed, for decision-making power to be adequately allocated, and for CHQ involvement to be informed and necessary.

<p>The purpose of this study is to examine the relevant literatures about coordination mechanisms as well as study the use of coordination mechanisms by MNCs. Since many scholars have presented various models and claimed that their ideas are useful for MNCs and   subsidiary. This is due to getting a better understanding of how coordination works and what problems may occur.</p>

European integration provokes competition between the European metropolitan areas. At the same time, the question at which locations services of highest centrality are produced remains open. The paper analyses how far the German capital Berlin accepts the challenge to accomodate headquarters of multinational firms. Our investigation shows that Berlin's qualifications to attract headquarters are quite well. The number of headquarters residing in Berlin has increased subtly but contiuous during the last 15 years. One advantage could be the spatial proximity to the Eastern European markets.

The purpose of this study is to examine the relevant literatures about coordination mechanisms as well as study the use of coordination mechanisms by MNCs. Since many scholars have presented various models and claimed that their ideas are useful for MNCs and   subsidiary. This is due to getting a better understanding of how coordination works and what problems may occur.

Multinational corporations face the dilemma of global integration and local responsiveness. Further, they have to contend with trying to minimise agency costs in managing remote subsidiaries. An alternative to regional headquarters was proposed in regional management mandated (RMM) subsidiaries. These subsidiaries are profit and loss units that are delegated headquarters functions to manage peripheral subsidiaries. The study aimed to examine the headquarters-RMM-subsidiary structure through determining whether the RMM-subsidiary was relevant to a multi-business subsidiary with four industry sectors and examining the roles played by the business units within the industry sectors. A qualitative and single-case, exploratory study was conducted, which consisted of twenty-five semi-structured interviews with respondents within the headquarters, the RMM-subsidiary and the peripheral subsidiaries. This research found that the RMM-subsidiary does perform most of the headquarters’ functions for the peripheral subsidiaries and business partners – the performance of which is impacted by the type of business and the channel to market. The performance of these functions further highlighted that each business unit within an industry with the RMM charter plays multiple roles to varying degrees within a given framework and across multiple frameworks, and that the roles are also impacted by type of business and channel to market, local resources and competencies. Peripheral subsidiaries were highlighted as being unimportant, compromising their local responsiveness; however, it was indicated that potentially their role would change as business opportunities dictated. Finally, the deployment of expatriates seems not for purposes of control but to fill resource, knowledge and skill gaps as necessary. This highlighted an alternative to expatriate deployment – the development of staff at the headquarters. This would serve two purposes: equip the individual with knowledge and skills needed in the home country and develop networking and trusting relationships that were found to foster better working ties between the headquarters and subsidiaries. As a result the key components in the HQ-RMM-subsidiary structure are identified as the balance between control and autonomy, RMM-subsidiary roles and networking and trusting relationships, as all three components have a direct bearing on the MNC achieving global integration and local responsiveness. Keywords: headquarters functions, regional management mandated subsidiary, peripheral subsidiary, multi-business multinational corporation, subsidiary roles / Dissertation (MBA)--University of Pretoria, 2014. / zkgibs2015 / Gordon Institute of Business Science (GIBS) / MBA / Unrestricted

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