Patrick Furu

7. Subsidiary absorptive capacity, MNC headquarters' control strategies and transfer of subsidiary competencies Ulf Andersson, Ingmar Bjorkman and Patrick Furu INTRODUCTION Recent writings on the competitive advantage of firms have focused considerably on the role of ...

■ This paper examines the relationships between a competitive environment, the development of subsidiary competencies, and the integration of subsidiary technological competence into the rest of the multinational corporation. ■ Literature on both national competitive advantage and subsidiary roles within the multinational corporation is examined and hypotheses are developed to determine whether there is a relationship between national competitive advantage, subsidiary competence and integration of the subsidiary's competence.

The ability to transform an organization into the digital era is particularly challenging for an organization with an almost 150-year-old history such as the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra (BPO). Balancing on the one hand the respect for history and tradition with the ambition for renewal and commitment to quality on the other, the orchestra managed to be the first major player in its field to become digital in 2008 with its Digital Concert Hall (DCH). This chapter analyses the antecedents of the BPO’s successful digital transformation. It can be explained through the shared leadership and democratic governance models, as well as adherence to the core values and mission of the organization.

7. Subsidiary absorptive capacity, MNC headquarters' control strategies and transfer of subsidiary competencies Ulf Andersson, Ingmar Bjorkman and Patrick ... of a large body of work on MNC control and coordination (for reviews, see Doz and Prahalad, 1993; Martinez and Jarillo ...

The nature of knowledge in business schools has been under debate for the past decade. The dual objectives of academic rigor on the one hand, and practical relevance of the knowledge produced and taught have been claimed to be contradictory. Furthermore, conventional sources for new knowledge and ideas for business leadership have been partially replaced by new ones. For example, there is an increasing number of corporate leaders that have brought artists and artistic processes into their companies. These processes may be able to offer novel ways of responding to the growing complexity of our world.

The jazz metaphor has been used widely in the organizational behavior and leadership literature as a novel way of thinking about organizing and managing. It has been claimed that the organization of the future resembles an improvising jazz band [5], as the loose organizational structures enable new innovative ideas to be expressed and tested. In terms of teaching in business schools, it is still not clear how to incorporate the metaphor into the curriculum in a way that is meaningful and that it promotes the active learning of the students.

The aim of this study was to investigate how practicing managers perceive their learning when exposed to an unconventional teaching method, i.e. a facilitated use of an improvising jazz band in a workshop on leadership. The key research question was how different learning style orientations influence the managers’ perceived level of learning from the jazz band pedagogy. Kolb’s Learning Styles Inventory is utilized to study the relationship between learning style orientation on the one hand, and the level of perceived learning on the other. Learning is based on Kirkpatrick’s learning evaluation model. Results indicate that those preferring Concrete Experience and those preferring Reflective Observation experience higher levels of learning.

The interplay between culture and leadership styles has been widely acknowledged in both academic research and practitioner-based literature. While it has been established that culture influences leadership styles, it is clear that other contextual factors also determine the appropriate leadership approach. The contingency theory of leadership posits that effective leadership behaviour is contingent on a number of contextual or situational factors, and yet there is little agreement on exactly how these factors influence leadership effectiveness (Lorsch, 2010). This study attempts to fill that void by analysing leadership as depicted in Italian author Andrea Camilleri’s Inspector Montalbano novel series. The main contingency factors herein identified are key organizational activities, cultural context, the source of leader influence and the leader–follower relationship. The empirical material consisted of 11 novels in which 803 leadership situations were identified and analysed. The findings add to our understanding of leadership as a contingent phenomenon by linking a contingency theory of leadership with leadership’s cultural context.

The modern multinational corporation (MNC) is no longer so markedly characterized so much by the efficient exploitation of its firm-specific advantage. Rather, the MNC's potential advantage over local firms is constituted by its ability to draw on the distinct competence of its internationally dispersed units. In this modern MNC some subsidiaries become the providers of valuable competence for other units, while many others are the recipients. While there has been much research on the roles of subsidiaries, there is still no clear understanding as to how the subsidiary's distinctive competence influences its corporate role. This paper examines what it is that drives the competence development in different foreign R&D subsidiaries, and how such drivers are related to the role of the subsidiary. The results of analyses-of-variance of 468 multinational subsidiaries show that competent and important R&D subsidiaries are characterized among other things by being deeply embedded in their local business environment and by exhibiting high levels of investments in competence development. These findings suggest that it is important for the multinational corporation to maintain a presence in competitive environments, as well as purposefully supporting and building competence in its subsidiaries.

Integration of Technological Competence in the MNC: The Role of the ... ■ This paper examines the relationships between a competitive environment, the ... ■ Literature on both national competitive advantage and subsidiary roles within the multinational corporation is examined and ...

Growing interest has emerged in viewing the multinational corporation as a knowledge creating and diffusing entity. The importance of sharing knowledge across organizational and national boundaries has been established in previous research. However, the question of which
organizational policies lead to knowledge sharing between multinational units is still not fully understood. In particular, the link between compensation mechanisms and knowledge sharing has not received attention in previous studies. By studying 164 foreign-owned subsidiaries located in Finland and China, this article attempts to identify the relationship between subsidiary bonus pay based on MNC-wide performance and knowledge sharing between different units of the MNC. In line with the knowledge-based perspective of the firm, the results suggest that incentive pay based on the collective performance of the MNC leads to greater knowledge sharing.

Abstract There is a large body of research dealing with top management compensation from an agency theory perspective. Diffi culties in monitoring top management (the agent) are exacerbated in the multinational corporation, where there are significant informa-tion asymmetries ...

7. Subsidiary absorptive capacity, MNC headquarters' control strategies and transfer of subsidiary competencies Ulf Andersson, Ingmar Bjorkman and Patrick Furu INTRODUCTION Recent writings on the competitive advantage of firms have focused considerably on the role of ...

The ability to transform an organization into the digital era is particularly challenging for an organization with an almost 150-year-old history such as the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra (BPO). Balancing on the one hand the respect for history and tradition with the ambition for renewal and commitment to quality on the other, the orchestra managed to be the first major player in its field to become digital in 2008 with its Digital Concert Hall (DCH). This chapter analyses the antecedents of the BPO's successful digital transformation. It can be explained through the shared leadership and democratic governance models, as well as adherence to the core values and mission of the organization.