Brexit, the mediation strategies of foreign corporate subsidiaries and regional resilience

ABSTRACT

The period leading up to Brexit in the UK has led to foreign corporate subsidiaries having to mediate uncertainties and upheaval, forming part of broader regional resilience tendencies. The roles of subsidiaries, their corporate contexts, global production network positions and regional coupling are all heterogeneous, meaning that responses are likely to be disparate. Utilizing ‘dynamic managerial capabilities’ and subsidiary competences perspectives, this paper examines how subsidiaries have mediated Brexit and why certain actions are taken, and which is co-constituted with regional resilience. Twenty foreign subsidiaries within manufacturing sectors in the West Midlands and Wales are examined. In conclusion, the paper finds that Brexit mediation strategies have generally focused on seeking stasis through worst-case no-deal planning and preserving existing supply chains, indicating the dominance of ‘adaptation’ forms of regional resilience.

KEYWORDS:

• Brexit
• corporations
• dynamic managerial capabilities
• subsidiary role
• regional resilience

JEL:

• L2
• O1
• R1

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

The author thanks the referees and editors for their invaluable comments and suggestions, which led to a substantial improvement in the paper.

DISCLOSURE STATEMENT

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Additional information

Funding

The research for this article was funded through a Leverhulme Trust Research Fellowship on ‘Brexit, Foreign Corporations and Regional Development’ [grant number RF-2018-195/7].