A Systematic Review of the Literature and Theoretical Analysis of Subsidiary Roles

ABSTRACT

Over the past decades, the management of the multinational subsidiary has emerged as a distinctive field of investigation for international business researchers. As multinationals are confronted with the simultaneous need for global standardization and local adaptation, subsidiaries may differ in the scope of their operations, the extent of responsibilities they take, the importance of the markets they serve, their level of competence and their organizational characteristics. These developments manifest themselves very decisively in the emergence of a range of different mandates that subsidiaries can assume in the wider context of MNE strategy. The main purpose of this paper is to present a broad review of the approaches toward the differentiated roles played by these MNE dispersed subunits. Our “role categorization” distinguishes among four key blocks of typologies, arguing that they elaborate on different perspectives that inform on subsidiaries' strategic and organizational issues, leading consequently to distinctive contributions regarding the investigation and evaluation of MNE activities. The major objective of the review is to capture the main characteristics of the different approaches and to identify and discuss the scope of the concepts underlined behind them. Similarities and points of divergence among the typologies are furthermore discussed. The review provides a basis for further directions of future research

KEYWORDS:

• Autonomy
• integration
• knowledge
• responsiveness
• scope
• subsidiary roles