Weight versus voice: How foreign subsidiaries gain attention from corporate headquarters

• 成果类型: Article
• 署名作者: Bouquet, Cyril; Birkinshaw, Julian
• 署名单位: York University - Canada; University of London; London Business School
• 刊物名称: ACADEMY OF MANAGEMENT JOURNAL
• ISSN/ISSBN: 0001-4273
• DOI: 10.5465/amj.2008.32626039
• 发表日期: 2008
• 页码: 577-601
• 关键词: TOP MANAGEMENT; MULTINATIONAL-CORPORATIONS; EVOLUTION; strategy; silence; PERSPECTIVE; COMMITMENT; enterprise; ADVANTAGES; location

摘要

This study investigates how foreign subsidiaries gain attention from corporate headquarters. Using detailed questionnaire and archival data on 283 subsidiaries of multinational enterprises, our analysis revealed three significant findings. First, attention decisions are partially based on the structural positions that subsidiary units occupy within a corporate system-their weight. Second, a subsidiary also has a voice of its own that it can use to attract attention. Third, the relationship between a subsidiary's voice and headquarters attention is moderated by two specific aspects of the subsidiary's historical situation: geographic distance and downstream competence.