Multinational Corporations (MNCs) increasingly realise the importance of acknowledging their dispersed subunits as individual organisations with the potential to formulate strategies and implement autonomous decision making in order to ensure the MNC‟s competitive viability. As MNCs need to remain responsive to the distinctive host markets‟ needs in order to retain and grow their market share, knowledge of the evolution of its subsidiaries becomes vital. Vodacom‟s new role as a subsidiary of Vodafone since its acquisition by the MNC in 2009, make it an ideal test subject to evaluate the roles of a subsidiary‟s mandates and its evolution in relation to the parent company from a South African perspective. The study summarised in this paper highlights a theoretically-based evaluation of the subsidiary-role frameworks, and presents new knowledge gained from in-depth interviews conducted with key personnel. The investigation suggests Vodacom is becoming an Active Subsidiary, showing high decision-making autonomy, operating and executing its decision making within the Vodafone procedures, policies and strategy. This has a marked effect on all business functions. Further research could focus on the processes of evolution of the subsidiary roles, and the contribution and strategic positioning of Centre of Excellence in the MNCs. / Dissertation (MBA)--University of Pretoria, 2010. / Gordon Institute of Business Science (GIBS) / unrestricted

This research identifies the factors affecting capability transfer at the subsidiary level during acquisitions. Acquisitions provide acquiring firms with the opportunity to acquire new capabilities and to apply current capabilities in new settings and in doing so improve the firm’s competitiveness. Capability transfer, therefore, is critically important for acquisition performance. Limited subsidiary level analysis has been conducted on the factors affecting capability transfer during acquisition.The study identifies implementation factors, socio-cultural factors, management practices and absorptive capacity as the key factors affecting capability transfer. To exploit and enhance these factors, strong leadership is required to create the atmosphere necessary for capability transfer though the creation of a common vision and shared identity. Aligned performance measures channel the stakeholder behaviour towards capability transfer and the achievement of acquisition objectives. Training intervention and support facilitate the contribution of retained employees to the combined firm.Understanding the key factors affecting capability transfer allows managers to better approach capability transfer in acquisitions. Managers are then in a better position to formulate appropriate and comprehensive strategies to ensure successful transfer. / Dissertation (MBA)--University of Pretoria, 2012. / Gordon Institute of Business Science (GIBS) / unrestricted

Significant structural changes in the retail sector, due to retailer consolidation within and across countries as well as retailer internationalisation, lead to significant changes of the sales function within the FMCG industry. Whilst formally sales functions acted traditionally predominantly locally, manufacturers are recently pressured to act more integrated, i.e. centrally, regarding its sales function. From an IB perspective this study strives to investigate into the result of the competing forces for integration and responsiveness at the manufacturers side in the special context of Germany, being a pivotal market for this industry. Identifying the potential division of strategic sales activities between subsidiary and HQ, the study investigates into how such division impacts on the subsidiary market performance. Using the I/R framework as a starting point, network theory and the concept of subsidiary importance are utilized to understand the interrelationships a subsidiary is embedded in and its potential strategic importance to the wider MNE. The framework connects the antecedents of the division of strategic sales activities between HQ and subsidiary, to subsidiary market performance. The research follows a mixed-method approach using contextualising interviews and a quantitative survey. The data analysis has been conducted with PLS SEM reflecting both the more explorative character of the study and the relatively small sample size. Empirical evidence showed that most strategic sales decisions are still made at subsidiary level, pointing at a low level of division between HQ and subsidiary. The results show that strong customer relationships as well as the positive impact of a formalised sales strategy, which ideally follows a global strategic framework, seem to be the main contributors to subsidiary market performance. Unexpectedly, subsidiary importance, the visibility and relevance of sales capabilities to other subsidiaries, fails to be a driver for the subsidiary strategic role within the MNE, mainly due to the functional (sales competencies stay rather local) and country (sheer importance of the German market) context of the study. The key contributions of this study are related to the area of IB and the sales literature. This study adds to the extant IB literature from a downstream value chain perspective supporting existing findings regarding the network theory and subsidiary market performance. The irrelevance of the concept of subsidiary importance highlights the importance of the empirical context in IB research. Finally, the study sheds light on the sales function from a strategic perspective in the IB context and thus adds to the sparse literature regarding the sales strategy as well as it starts bridging both fields.

In this thesis, we investigate how multinational (MNC) parents can use the way they finance their subsidiary firms in order to constrain subsidiary management. In the first essay, we develop a theoretical framework in which we consider a number of alternative decisions related to the financing of MNC subsidiary firms. We show that, from the MNC parent's perspective, the optimal choice is to delegate the monitoring of the subsidiary to host-country banks and finance the subsidiary using short-term and short-term external debt. This arrangement will guarantee that the MNC subsidiary management exerts an optimal amount of effort and abides by the objectives set by the MNC parent. In the second essay, we propose and test four hypotheses addressing how MNC parents can use short-term and short-term external debt to constrain the rent-seeking behaviour of subsidiary management. One set of hypotheses analyses the use of short-term debt. The second set of hypotheses investigates the use of short-term external debt. Moreover, we investigate these two hypotheses in two different settings to measure: (i) the subsidiary effect by comparing between UK domestic and UK subsidiary firms and (ii) the location effect by comparing UK and US subsidiary firms. We find support for our hypotheses, namely that UK subsidiaries have more short-term debt and more short-term external debt as compared to equivalent UK domestic firms, and that US subsidiaries have more short-term debt and less short-term external debt compared to equivalent UK subsidiaries. Our results are both statistically and economically significant and are robust to the use of a matched sample approach to test our hypotheses. The third essay investigates the relationship between the bargaining power of MNC subsidiary firms and the way these firms are financed by analysing the source and the maturity of financing arrangements. We argue that the financing arrangements used to finance the subsidiary are linked to its ability to engage in rent-seeking behaviour and the latter depends on the amount of bargaining power that the subsidiary possesses. We use four different measures of bargaining power, namely age, size, presence of foreign sales and percentage of foreign sales. Using data relating to UK and US MNC subsidiaries between 2001 and 2010, we test two sets of hypotheses linking the bargaining power of the MNC subsidiary firms with the use of short-term debt and the use of external short-term debt. Our results provide strong support for our short-term debt hypotheses while support for our external debt hypotheses is more limited. The results are also economically significant when using the percentage of foreign sales as a bargaining power proxy. We also notice that the use of debt to constrain subsidiary management behaviour appears to differ across UK and US MNC subsidiary firms.

Headquarters of multinational corporations can be involved in their subsidiaries and help with the development and transfer of innovative ideas. However, headquarters involvement might not always be desired or needed, and it can thus be perceived as interference with local activities, potentially reducing local willingness to go the extra mile. We address the lack of knowledge about subsidiary manager behavior by answering the following question: How does headquarters involvement influence the proactive behavior of subsidiary managers to push for new and innovative ideas? Using data from 120 top managers in subsidiaries of multinational corporations, we find that the negative relationship between headquarters involvement and their subsidiary managers' support for initiatives can be reduced when socialization mechanisms such as a common corporate culture or rotation programs are put in place.

The tension of enhanced performance has been guiding Multinational Corporations (MNCs) for decades. The complexity of their structure, the increasing competition, and the slowdown of the economy have encouraged MNCs to seek new ways to improve their internal efficiency and eventually their performance. Only few organisations have understood the fundamental relevance of sharing the experience and knowledge gained through innovations and best practices. We focus our study on the case of Swedish subsidiaries fully owned by Italian MNCs, and we aim to verify if their communication and knowledge transfer systems allow them to raise the performance or, on the contrary, prevent interaction and cooperation in order to improve the overall performance of the organisation.

China has been heavily investing in new energy. With the Chinese government encouragement as well as huge demand from domestic, a lot of MNCs set up subsidiaries in China to enter Chinese market. The new energy industry in China is under rapid and prosperous development. This study adopts qualitative approach, through interviewing with three new energy companies as well as secondary data collection to understand in such changing environment, how MNC¡¦s subsidiary in China can manage the dynamics and build up capability to achieve initiative is the objective this study attempt to understand. The findings show that under different strategies, exploitation and exploration, of developing dynamic capability in China, there will be corresponding HR, R&D, and marketing practices in subsidiary. And these practices will lead to different result of subsidiary initiatives - local and global initiative.

In the era of knowledge economy, the foundation of the organization is not money, material capital, or technology, but is human capital and knowledge. During the recent years, Taiwanese enterprises have faced the trend of globalization. For many international companies, their overseas subsidiaries have grown at a rate faster than ever before. Therefore, researchers have begun to emphasize on the management issues of overseas subsidiaries, especially in the human capital. The purpose of this research is to develop a framework of strategic human capital at the subsidiary level in international companies. In this framework, we first categorize international human capital at the subsidiary level. Then the analyses of the determinants of international human capital are undertaken. Using a sample of Taiwanese companies who have subsidiaries operating globally, we test a set of hypotheses among the variables. The major findings of this study are listed below: I. The international company¡¦s human capital can be categorized into three types: 1. Input of human capital; 2. Transformation of human capital, including the executive¡¦s leadership of knowledge and vision, and employees¡¦ ability of entrepreneurship and innovation; 3. Output of human capital. II. Based on the cluster analysis, four different strategic roles of overseas subsidiaries have been found. 1. Integrated player; 2. Implementor; 3. Local Innovator; 4. Moderate subsidiary, instead of a global innovator. III. Different characteristics of organization also bring different composites of human capital. 1. Investment ratio of a parent company has significant differences on input of human capital. 2. The established years of a subsidiary have a significant difference on input of human capital. 3. Employees in different geometrical areas have significant differences on the employees¡¦ ability of entrepreneurship and innovation. 4. The number of employees has significant differences on input of human capital. IV. Strategic roles of overseas subsidiaries (including inflow of knowledge and outflow of knowledge) are the crucial determinants of international human capital (including input of human capital, the executive¡¦s leadership of knowledge and vision, employees¡¦ ability of entrepreneurship and innovation, and output of human capital). However, their relationships are moderated by subsidiary¡¦s characteristics of organization.

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Žilvienė S. ir Ežerskienė O. AB „ Pieno žvaigždės“ filialo „Mažeikių pieninė“ logistinės sistemos įvertinimas ir jos tobulinimas: Vadybos Magistro baigiamasis darbas / mokslinis vadovas prof. A.Garalis; Šiaulių universitetas, Vadybos katedra. – Šiauliai, 2007. – 120 p. Magistro darbe analizuojama AB „ Pieno žvaigždės“ filialo „Mažeikių pieninė“ logistikos sistema, išskiriama pagrindinė logistinės sistemos įvertinimo ir tobulinimo problema. Nagrinėjama įvairių Lietuvos ir užsienio autorių literatūra apie logistikos sistemas, analizuojamos pagrindinės logistikos sistemos sąvokos. Atlikta AB „ Pieno ��vaigždės“ filialo „Mažeikių pieninė“ logistinės sistemos SSGG analizė, aplinkos vidinei ir išorinei įmonės analizei ištirti sudarytos anketos, nagrinėjami įmonės dokumentai pagal pasirinktą temą. Gauti rezultatai patvirtina suformuluotą mokslinio tyrimo hipotezę, kad jei įmonės logistikos sistema yra tinkamai sutvarkyta, tai ji suteikia daug geresnį ir greitesnį vartotojų aptarnavimo lygį, siekiant konkurencinio pranašumo. Pateiktomis išvadomis ir pasiūlymais galės pasinaudoti AB „Pieno žvaigždės“ filialo „Mažeikių pieninė“ logistikos skyriaus vadovybė, bei kitos panašaus pobūdžio įmones. / Žilvienė S. ir Ežerskienė O. Subsidiary of AB „ Pieno žvaigždės“evaluation of „Mažeikių pieninė“ logistic system and it’s improvement: final work of a post-graduate in management / scientific prof. A.Garalis; Šiauliai university, Chair of Management. – Šiauliai, 2007. – 120 p. AB „ Pieno žvaigždės“ filialo „Mažeikių pieninė“ logistinės sistemos įvertinimas ir jos tobulinimas: Vadybos Magistro baigiamasis darbas / mokslinis vadovas prof. A.Garalis; Šiaulių universitetas, Vadybos katedra. – Šiauliai, 2007. – 120 p. Master‘s study work presents the analysis of logistics system in AB „Pieno žvaigždės“ branch „Mažeikių pieninė“ and makes out the main problem of evaluation and development of it. The work analyses the literature of various Lithuanian and foreign authors about logistics systems and main concepts of logistics systems. The analysis of AB „Pieno žvaigždės“ branch „Mažeikių pieninė“ logistics system SSGG has been done; questionnaires for analyzing internal and outer settings of a company have been done; analysis of company’s documents due to chosen theme has been done. The results confirm the hypothesis of formulated scientific inquiry that if company’s logistics system is rightly ordered it gives much better and quicker consumer’s service on purpose to seek competitive advantages. Conclusions and offers can be used by heads of Logistics Dept. in AB „Pieno žvaigždės“ branch „Mažeikių pieninė“ and other similar companies.