Abstract
Multinational corporations (MNCs) increasingly seek to gain access to, and exploit, locationally specific sources of advanced knowledge and technological capabilities, creating a need to explain (1) the diversity among these facilities and (2) how institutions influence MNCs’ abilities to invest in different subsidiary types. Extending debates on firms’ knowledge-augmenting activities, the authors integrate institutions into their analytical framework to a greater extent than previous work has done. Moreover, existing contributions provide typologies of R&D subsidiaries. In contrast, the authors focus on a particular subset of subsidiaries, knowledge-augmenting ones, and put forward a theory to explain their variety and their prevalence, enabling them to identify previously neglected subsidiary types that have important managerial and policy implications. By downplaying the diversity of these subsidiaries, existing work has not been able to capture the full range of managerial challenges as well as the costs and benefits of different subsidiary types to host countries. The authors, therefore, problematize firms’ abilities to gain access to foreign knowledge-generating assets, highlight the importance of institutional environments, provide policy recommendations and identify areas for future research.
Original language | English |
---|---|
Pages (from-to) | 483-496 |
Number of pages | 14 |
Journal | British Journal of Management |
Volume | 29 |
Issue number | 3 |
DOIs | |
Publication status | Published - Jul 2018 |
Bibliographical note
Publisher Copyright:© 2017 British Academy of Management
ASJC Scopus subject areas
- General Business,Management and Accounting
- Strategy and Management
- Management of Technology and Innovation