Intermediate units and competence creation in the multinational firma network approach

Resumen

The concept of Intermediate Units (IU) is relatively recent and is used to refer to every form of Intermediary Headquarter (HQ) in the Multinational Corporation (MNC). There is a spectrum of related but dispersed concepts in the literature raging form Regional Headquarters and Divisional Headquarters to Sub-regional Headquarters, Domestic HQs, Regional Management Mandates, regional offices, springboard subsidiaries, dispersed HQs among others. All of them share the intermediate position in terms of strategy and structure between the HQ and the local subsidiaries. Their main characteristic is holding responsibilities, to a different extent, among other subsidiaries. The main goal of this dissertation is to organize current state of knowledge on IUs to integrate and unify, theoretically and empirically the concept. Furthermore, we aim to explore the common characteristic of these units. Second, and following recent literature displacing HQs as value creating units at the MNC (Nell and Ambos, 2013; Ciabuschi, Forsgren and Martin, 2017), we study the competence creation capability of these units through their engagement in political networks. To the date, embeddedness in political networks has been underestimated as a means to develop capabilities in the MNC (Puck, Lawton and Mohr, 2018) and the extensive embeddedness of IUs provides the perfect arenas to compare different subsidiary strategies at intermediate levels. Third, recently, IUs are shown to develop two different parenting capabilities according to Chandler (1991): the coordinative and the entrepreneurial (Mahnke, Ambos, Nell and Hobdari, 2012; Hoenen, Nell and Ambos, 2014; Belderbos, Du and Goerzen, 2017). Our last goal is to study how these units develop its influence exploring their different sources of power. The sample used includes 193 Spanish subsidiaries, a percentage of which are considered IUs. Given the particularities of the phenomenon under study, we use 2 different statistical techniques in the chapters composing the dissertation: structural equation modeling with a multigroup analysis and mean differences. This research is anchored in a network paradigm as research questions respond to value creating approaches inside the MNC. Complex parenting structures, parenting capabilities and competence creation are topics developed within MNCs modeled as systems and therefore this will be our approach. Our results throw several contributions but, in general terms, this dissertation contributes doubly responding to the above objectives: first, integrates theoretically and empirically the related literature under the umbrella of IUs concept. Second, confirms the value creation profile of IUs. They hold responsibilities over other units and perform HQ related coordinative or and entrepreneurial activities and develop specialized parenting capabilities.