Subsidiary Entrepreneurship and Entrepreneurial Opportunity: An Institutional Perspective

A subsidiary's ability to identify opportunities in the host country and to subsequently exploit these opportunities could create competitive advantages for the Multinational Corporation. While research on subsidiary entrepreneurship has focused primarily on subsidiary-specific resources and capabilities, as well as environmental factors, the type of opportunities that the subsidiaries may find in the host environment has been underexplored. Drawing on the subsidiary entrepreneurship literature, institutional perspectives, and entrepreneurship research, this paper suggests that subsidiaries embedded in institutional contexts that are different from those of their home country have unique advantages that enable the identification of entrepreneurial opportunities. Accordingly, a theoretical framework is proposed, based on contingency perspectives on the different views of entrepreneurial opportunities in relation to business processes in the host country's institutional environment, vis-a-vis uncertainty levels and legitimacy requirements. In addition, appropriate strategic approaches are suggested, through which subsidiaries can exploit these entrepreneurial opportunities.     

Environmental Factors,Managerial Processes,and Information Technology Investment Strategies

Although significant research attention has been directed at understanding the value of information technology (IT) investments for firms, very little attention has been paid to understand the IT investment behavior of firms. This article seeks to fill this void. We introduce the concept of IT investment strategy, defined by dimensions of intensity and proactiveness, to characterize the IT investment behavior of firms. Synthesizing the environmental deterministic and strategic choice perspectives of a firm's strategic decision making, we examine the effects of environmental factors, managerial processes, and the interplay between them on IT investment strategy. Specifically, we examine the impact of environmental factors such as industry clockspeed and information intensity on IT investment strategy. We also incorporate the strategic choice perspective to argue that managerial processes such as frequent chief executive officer—chief information officer communications and collective information systems planning play a critical role in shaping the firm's IT investment strategy. The empirical results show that the environmental variables are related to IT investment strategy. Besides, managerial processes serve as a means to understand the environment and thus moderate the relationships between the environmental variables and the various facets of IT investment strategy. The conceptualization of IT investment strategy and the focus on both environmental determinism and strategic choice should enrich our understanding of firms’ IT investing behavior.     

Unravelling the Subsidiary Initiative Process: A Multilevel Approach

Strategy‐making and entrepreneurial behaviour at the subsidiary level, in particular the phenomenon of subsidiary initiative, has received increasing research attention in recent years. In the fields of international business, strategy and entrepreneurship, several studies addressing aspects of this phenomenon have been conducted. They focused on different stages of the subsidiary initiative process, different theories and also different methodological levels. This puts subsidiary initiatives as a topic at the crossroads of several disciplines, so that theory‐building remains fragmented, and there is a lack of perspective capturing the complexity of the entire subsidiary initiative process. Based on a comprehensive literature review, this paper discusses theoretical concepts and streams of thinking that have contributed to our understanding of the subsidiary initiative process, and develops an organizing framework based on stages and levels of the subsidiary initiative process. In order to integrate theories across levels, the authors identify ‘aggregation’ theories that guide the emergence of initiatives from the individual up to the network level, and also acknowledge theories that link the micro–macro divide and may help in the development of a more holistic view of subsidiary initiatives.     

The relative influence of country conditions, industry structure, and business strategy on multinational corporation subsidiary performance

Two competing theories of firm performance have been proposed in the business strategy literature, the industry structure view and the resource-based view of the firm. Empirical studies have estimated the relative contribution of industry structure, corporate, and business unit effects to business unit performance. These studies, however, have been restricted to using only single-country data. Missing from this debate is an international dimension that includes the relative importance of country conditions as a determinant of firm performance. The objective of this article is to fill this void by adding country characteristics to the analysis. Using cross-country data of four large multinationals in a single industry, we estimate the relative importance of country characteristics in addition to industry structure, corporate characteristics, and subsidiary strategy as determinants of subsidiary performance by using multiple regression analysis. This analysis also will contribute to the discussion on environmental determinism versus strategic choice. Country and industry characteristics are mainly outside the control of management, whereas corporate characteristics and subsidiary strategy are under management's control. Results show that country characteristics are by far the most important determinant of subsidiary performance, followed by industry structure, subsidiary strategy, and corporate characteristics. Thus, country conditions are a very important determinant of firm performance that so far has been overlooked in previous studies. These results indicate that subsidiary performance is determined mainly by conditions outside the control of subsidiary management. In terms of competing theories, these results support the environmental determinism view more than the strategic choice view and the resource-based view of the firm more than the industry structure view. These results also have important implications for multinational corporations' selection of countries for entry and investment and for performance evaluation of subsidiary management.     

A framework to study strategizing activities at the field level: The example of CSR rating agencies

This paper responds to recent calls to bridge strategy and organization research by combining Strategy-as-Practice and Neo-Institutional Theory through re-theorizing the notion of strategic actor. We problematize the notion of strategic actor at the field level, and rely on insights from management and organization studies and sociology to advance a theoretical framework that conceptualizes organizations as social actors at the field level. We demonstrate our theoretical framework by drawing on corporate social responsibility rating agencies. We see corporate social responsibility rating agencies as supra-individual, social actors that are predisposed to assume an active role in defining and revisiting structural parameters within the society through their purposeful, meaningful actions and interactions. Our main contribution is to the development of the Strategy-as-Practice literature, achieved by re-theorizing the notion of strategic actor at the field level. This contribution responds to the micro-isolationism critique, and proposes a new focus for Strategy-as Practice research.     

Antecedents and Outcomes of Political Tie Intensity: Institutional and Strategic Fit Perspectives

Although international nonmarket strategy research has highlighted the importance of political ties, it is still unclear why some foreign subsidiaries are more politically active than others and what conditions may render political practices beneficial in a host country. We argue that foreign subsidiary political tie intensity—the extent to which senior managers provide time and resources in informally dealing with government officials for nonmarket purposes—will be influenced by political institutions in their parent's home country, especially when the MNE parent attempts to protect foreign subsidiary resources. Additionally, we assert that fit between a parent's home country political institutions and foreign subsidiary political tie intensity will positively affect subsidiary performance. We employ primary data collected from 181 foreign subsidiaries in the Philippines and find support for our hypotheses. This study advances international nonmarket strategy research by highlighting how an MNE's home country political institutions shape subsidiary political networking and strategic performance outcomes in host country environments.     

Isolated Foreign Subsidiary's Initiative in Knowledge Transfer Within the MNE

Knowledge transfer is an essential issue of strategic management in MNEs, because it enables them to utilize their strategic resources across borders. However, it is far from perfect, and there are isolated foreign subsidiaries that are excluded from the knowledge network within the MNE. A primary contribution of this paper is to shed light on a fact which such an isolated foreign subsidiary can initiate the internal knowledge transfer within the MNE, in order to overcome the liability of internal isolation. This paper analyzes such a subsidiary initiative, with an extreme case of a large Japanese ICT company's Finnish subsidiary, which initiated an adoption of its headquarters' strategic practice. I collected and analyzed data by ethnographic fieldwork in this subsidiary for over one year. After depicting the details of the initiation process, I show how the initiation process was influenced by the subsidiary managers' dual motivation; solving the liability of internal isolation, and keeping the advantage of isolation. I hope that this study would enrich theory building of subsidiary isolation and also contribute to subsidiary managers who have struggled with the liability of internal isolation.     

Critical research and entrepreneurship: A cross-disciplinary conceptual typology

Critical perspectives of entrepreneurship have gained increasing traction over the last two decades. The transformative potential of critical research resides in challenging some of entrepreneurship research's epistemological, ontological and theoretical assumptions, with a view to offering a range of alternatives. Critical research in entrepreneurship has remained fragmented, however, due to its heterogeneous theoretical lineages and compartmentalized and niche interests. Addressing this situation, our objective is to intensify the space of critique in entrepreneurship research by offering a theoretically informed typology that delineates different manifestations of ‘criticalness’. Our overarching contribution is to advance a typology distinguishing four ideal types of critical entrepreneurship research based on evaluative emphases (referred to as ‘valence’) and the meta-theoretical assumptions informing its critical operation (called ‘paradigmatic orientation’). By demonstrating the variegated political, ethical and ideological interests and preoccupations that critical studies serve within different management sub-disciplines, the typology provides a conceptual vocabulary for making sense of and synthesizing critical perspectives across scholarly boundaries. Also, it helps to reposition understandings of critique as gestures of negativity by stimulating a greater appreciation of the generative potential of critique and the theoretical and philosophical possibilities that this can bring to our scholarly community.     

母子公司战略一致性的路径及实现机制 ——基于相互依赖关系视角

由复杂依赖关系构成的国有企业集团需要确定各子公司在战略目标上达成共识的程度,如何协调依赖关系以促成战略一致成为集团企业亟须解决的问题。本文通过多案例研究方法,基于相互依赖关系视角,构建了母子公司依赖关系与战略一致性的研究框架。通过定性比较分析(QCA),本文解读产生战略承诺的两类构型特征,一类是具有高开放性和低能动性的锁定式建构,另一类是具有低关系形态、高能动性和集权管控的能动式依赖。本文又立足关系规则,构建能够引发主动精神的策略,触发式探索策略可以减弱开放的锁定性和能动的短视性,嵌入式即兴策略可以增加子体的即兴创作和母体的适度规则,以促进子公司主导行为的生成。本文结合能动性与管控模式拓展了相互依赖关系视角的战略研究,对于国有企业集团内部协调运行提供借鉴与启示。     

跨国公司在华子公司角色演化:理论及案例分析

本文根据影响子公司角色转变的因素,将子公司的角色根据每种因素的强弱不同分为八种类型,即起步者、淘汰者、办事员、支持者、小诸侯、贡献者、直辖领袖和自由领袖.根据该子公司角色划分方法和演化路径分析方法,本文深入研究了一家跨国公司在华子公司-BEC公司的角色演化情况,研究证实了本文得出的角色划分方法和演化路径分析框架的适用性,也得到了跨国公司在华子公司的一个具体演化路径.     

Examining the Antecedents and Consequences of CIO Strategic Decision‐Making Authority: An Empirical Study*

Despite the strategic importance of information technology (IT) to contemporary firms, chief information officers (CIO) often still have varying degrees of strategic decision‐making authority. In this study, we apply the theory of managerial discretion to define CIO strategic decision‐making authority and argue that the CIO's level of strategic decision‐making authority directly influences IT's contribution to organization performance. We also draw on the power and politics perspective in the strategic decision‐making literature to identify the direct antecedents to the CIO's strategic decision‐making authority. A theoretical model is presented and empirically tested using survey data collected from a cross‐industry sample of 174 matched pairs of CIOs and top business executives through structural equation modeling. The results suggest that organizational climate, organizational support for IT, the CIO's structural power, the CIO's level of strategic effectiveness, and a strong partnership between the CIO and top management team directly influence the CIO's level of strategic decision‐making authority within the organization. The results also suggest that the CIO's strategic decision‐making authority in the organization directly influences the contribution of IT to firm performance and that effective CIOs have a greater influence on IT's contribution when provided with strategic decision‐making authority.     

Internationalization, innovation and entrepreneurship: business models for new technology-based firms

New technology-based firms, particularly those that develop their business around a new technological platform, are likely to be impacted by globalization, in terms of both pace of innovation and pressure of competition. For these firms, strategic decisions and growth processes are characterized by a deep inter-relationship amongst the processes of internationalization, innovation and entrepreneurship; processes which have tended to be examined independently in distinct bodies of literature. In practice strategic decisions concern each of these processes and address issues such as organizational boundaries, location of the operational activities, what activities to focus on and selection of value partners. The business model by which firms operate needs also to accommodate the spatial dimensions indicated by globalization; and the emergence of global technology markets. Little is known to date about the extent to which business models accommodate or are adapted to internationalization, innovation and entrepreneurship. This paper presents a review of the business model literature from which a generic business model framework is derived, identifying and introducing the main elements of these processes as the firms?? focus, modus and locus. This contribution makes a clear distinction between the business model and the strategy concepts and highlights the relevance of location decisions??not considered by extant business model literature to date. While our discussion draws on the high technology new venture as our primary example, we believe our business model conceptualization has general applicability.     

Creative entrepreneurs’ creativity,opportunity recognition,and career success: Is resource availability a double-edged sword?

At the heart of the entrepreneurial process in creative industries are entrepreneurial creativity and opportunity recognition, which influence entrepreneurs’ ability to create new ventures or significantly improve the position of an existing business. Recent entrepreneurship research has suggested that resource availability represents a double-edged sword, simultaneously facilitating and impeding new venture outcomes, while little research has explored how entrepreneurial creativity, opportunity recognition, and resource availability jointly affect entrepreneurial career success. To address the theoretical gap, this paper examines the moderating role of resource availability in the relationship between entrepreneurial creativity, opportunity recognition and career success of creative entrepreneurs.To reflect the career success perceived by business founders in creative industries, five indicators of entrepreneurial success are examined, including career achievement, social reputation, entrepreneurial happiness, capability enhancement, and financial satisfaction. Hierarchical regression analysis empirically examines a sample of 296 entrepreneurs in creative industries. Results suggest that entrepreneurial creativity and opportunity recognition are positively related to entrepreneurial career success. We also find that resource availability generally strengthens the effect of entrepreneurial creativity and opportunity recognition on entrepreneur-perceived career success. Nevertheless, the relationship between opportunity recognition and financial satisfaction is found to be weakened by entrepreneurs’ resource availability. Integrating the theory of entrepreneurial effectuation and resource dependence theory, our findings indicate that entrepreneurial bricolage is crucial for creative entrepreneurship.     

Creating a corporate vision

Work on strategy has only recently been paying attention to the role of vision in the strategic management process and the possible relationship between vision and concepts as creativity, leadership and entrepreneurship. Analysis, however, has not been uniform in defining the core issues itself or in positioning vision within the overall strategic management construct. Even worse, the inter-relationship between vision and other concepts like leadership and entrepreneurship was only casually treated. This article is an attempt at putting strategic vision within one consistent conceptual frame. A frame that would encompass a definition, a set of attributes, an input and output flow and an operationalization dimension. The article relies heavily on contemporary work on strategy, entrepreneurship, creativity, leadership and organization. Illustrative cases are drawn from recent business (and non-business) histories of business organizations.     

Revamping research on unrelated diversification strategy: perspectives,opportunities and challenges for future inquiry

With the aim of achieving an advanced understanding of current research on unrelated diversification and providing fruitful groundwork to foster active interchange between disciplinary traditions, this paper detects articles from two relevant research streams; i.e., strategic management and financial economics. We first provide a brief overview of management thinking on unrelated diversification strategy. Then, we present a conceptual map that offers a comprehensive appreciation of unrelated diversification strategy antecedents (i.e., environmental and institutional, organizational value-enhancing, and managerial drivers), implementation process (i.e., managerial complexity, misallocation of resources, and structural inertia), and consequences (i.e., diversification premiums and discounts). Finally, we unpack the major gaps in our current knowledge that may help refocus the research agenda on unrelated diversification strategy and revamp the apparent waning proclivity of this issue.     

Disentangling combinations and contingencies of generic strategies: A set-theoretic configurational approach

Porter's framework of generic strategies conceptualizes key elements of firms' strategic positions in their industry. Research on these generic strategies has been challenged by the complexity of capturing relations between generic strategies (i.e., cost leadership, differentiation, and focus) and their interdependencies with other strategic commitments for performance outcomes. We address these challenges by utilizing fuzzy set Qualitative Comparative Analysis (fsQCA) to explore the causal complexity underlying the links between generic strategies and firm performance. Specifically, we study combinations of firms' generic strategies and other strategy attributes as paths to high or low performance in the U.S. and Canadian airline industry. We find six equifinal configurations that are consistently linked to high performance and nine configurations that are consistently linked to the absence of high performance. Our findings shed light on the contingencies underlying performance consequences of generic strategies. Consequently they redirect theoretical debates on the links between generic strategies and firm performance as well as on the superiority of pure versus hybrid generic strategies towards relations of set-theoretic of necessity and sufficiency. Specifically, we show that having a generic strategy advantage is not sufficient for high performance but that it is a vital ingredient in recipes for success. Similarly, our findings suggest that a generic strategy disadvantage is not sufficient for low performance, but is a key ingredient in all paths to poor performance. We conclude with a discussion of our study's contributions to the literature, suggestions for future research, and implications for managerial practice.     

Academic Entrepreneurship: Time for a Rethink?

Academic entrepreneurship, which refers to efforts undertaken by universities to promote commercialization on campus and in surrounding regions of the university, has changed dramatically in recent years. Two key consequences of this change are that more stakeholders have become involved in academic entrepreneurship and that universities have become more ‘strategic’ in their approach to this activity. The authors assert that the time is ripe to rethink academic entrepreneurship. Specifically, theoretical and empirical research on academic entrepreneurship needs to take account of these changes, so as to improve the rigour and relevance of future studies on this topic. We outline such a framework and provide examples of key research questions that need to be addressed to broaden understanding of academic entrepreneurship.     

Multinational Enterprises: Leveraging a Corporate International Entrepreneurship Lens for New Insights Into Subsidiary Initiatives

Corporate entrepreneurship has long been acknowledged as critical to multinational enterprises (MNEs), with dispersed entrepreneurial efforts involving subsidiary initiatives becoming increasingly relied upon. Yet despite the global context in which MNEs operate, the conversation has not fully embraced the extent to which many of its entrepreneurial activities overlap with internationalization. In this paper, we identify a set of opportunity phenotypes for subsidiary initiatives based on their market focus as well as the knowledge and capabilities leveraged to identify and exploit the opportunity. The recursive relationship between opportunities and dynamic capabilities is then discussed, with an emphasis on building a research agenda for corporate international entrepreneurship.     

Performance effects of MNC headquarters–subsidiary conflict and the role of boundary spanners: The case of headquarter initiative rejection

Recent research suggests that both the scholarly and the managerial perspectives on intra-organizational conflict in multinational corporations (MNC) between headquarters (HQ) and their foreign subsidiaries have changed. Today, conflict is not necessarily regarded as dysfunctional or the result of inefficient global integration. Instead, conflict is now considered a normal consequence of organizing and managing across national borders. This research advances the literature on HQ–subsidiary relationships by adding new insights to the Headquarters–subsidiary conflict discussion, especially in the so far under-researched case of headquarter initiative rejection by foreign subsidiaries. We specifically focus on subsidiary conflict negotiation tactics, the effects of organizational and individual managerial power, and the characteristics and roles of MNC managers that act as boundary spanners during intra-organizational conflict processes. A qualitative, iterative, multiphase research approach was used to develop new theory pertaining to the phenomenon. The results show that in the presence of boundary spanners, dysfunctional conflict is less common and better overall organizational performance can be achieved for both the subsidiary and the MNC as a whole. The results also indicate that the boundary spanning ability is only partly formalizable and that some MNCs are able to foster boundary spanners better than others.     

国际化背景下的中国本土企业战略:一个理论框架与应用分析

发展中经济体内的本土企业,在面对全球竞争环境时如何形成有效的战略,是尚未受到充分研究的战略管理领域。本文以中国为对象,通过三个相关论题来探究这个有意义的问题。首先,我们评估了中国这样的转型发展经济体内的外部环境条件。在此基础上,我们确定了4个关键战略要素——本土化、资源拓展性成长、战略差异化和竞争性协作,从而形成成功的本土企业战略。然后,我们用这个四元模型来分析中国高新技术公司这类面临竞争挑战的特殊的公司群体。最后,我们提出了战略复杂性的概念以开拓未来的研究。除了理论贡献之外,我们还提供了管理建议和政策指向。