Ulf is Professor of Business Studies at Mälardalen University, Sweden and Adjunct Professor at BI Norwegian Business School, Norway. Ulf also serves as Senior Editor for Journal of World Business. He is an elected Fellow of Academy of International Business (AIB) and European International Business Academy (EIBA).
Previous studies of organizing-costs in multinational corporations have taken the view of the par... more Previous studies of organizing-costs in multinational corporations have taken the view of the parent corporation. In this study, we turn the table around and examine how subsidiaries experience org ...
To date, the rich subsidiary literature has largely overlooked the individual entrepreneurial beh... more To date, the rich subsidiary literature has largely overlooked the individual entrepreneurial behaviours required by subsidiary managers to build crucial linkages and access vital knowledge. This chapter addresses this issue and takes a microfoundational approach to develop a typology of subsidiary managers’ attentional engagement on key boundary spanning strategic activities. By substantiating middle managers’ strategic activities outside the realm of the direct TMT perspective, the chapter proposes an integrated framework of middle managers’ horizontal boundary spanning activities in multinational corporations (MNCs). Furthermore, this chapter reveals insights on the true levels of strategic coordination required to manage large complex organizations, and how managers focus their attention on different horizontal activities to drive corporate entrepreneurship depending on the specific agenda of their management context.
Network embeddedness and transfer of information and innovation in MNCS - the dual role of the su... more Network embeddedness and transfer of information and innovation in MNCS - the dual role of the subsidiary
In this paper, we adopt a resource-dependence perspective to shed light on the consequences of su... more In this paper, we adopt a resource-dependence perspective to shed light on the consequences of subsidiary’s strategic initiatives. We investigate how a subsidiary’s strategic initiatives contribute to its bargaining power, and how headquarters intervention – through granting attention or monitoring – affects the realization of its goals. Using structural equation modeling, our hypotheses are tested by drawing on a sample of subsidiaries located in three different countries. Our results show that subsidiaries are not able to increase their inter-unit power through initiatives unless they get headquarters attention. Subsidiary initiatives have a direct effect on subsidiary autonomy but the caveat is that initiatives also evoke headquarters monitoring, which in turn decreases the subsidiary’s autonomy. Acknowledgment: Support from the Advanced Institute of Management Research (AIM), is gratefully acknowledged. Tina C. Ambos Vienna University of Economics and Business Administration Aug...
ABSTRACT This paper analyzes the MNC subsidiaries’ trade-off between the need for knowledge creat... more ABSTRACT This paper analyzes the MNC subsidiaries’ trade-off between the need for knowledge creation and the need for knowledge protection, and relates it to the extent of knowledge outflows generated within the host location. Combining research in International Business with Social Theory, we build a conceptual framework suggesting that subsidiaries that extensively draw on external knowledge sources are also more likely to generate knowledge outflows to local firms. We argue that this may be explained by the subsidiaries’ willingness to build the trust that facilitates the establishment of reciprocal knowledge linkages. However, when the value of the subsidiary's knowledge stock is very high, the need for knowledge protection restrains reciprocity mechanisms in knowledge exchanges, thus reducing the extent of knowledge outflows to the host location. This study contributes to the literature on the firm-level antecedents of FDI-mediated local knowledge outflows, as well as to the broad IB literature on the relationship between subsidiaries and their host regions. The implications for managers and policy-makers are also discussed.
Previous studies of organizing-costs in multinational corporations have taken the view of the par... more Previous studies of organizing-costs in multinational corporations have taken the view of the parent corporation. In this study, we turn the table around and examine how subsidiaries experience org ...
To date, the rich subsidiary literature has largely overlooked the individual entrepreneurial beh... more To date, the rich subsidiary literature has largely overlooked the individual entrepreneurial behaviours required by subsidiary managers to build crucial linkages and access vital knowledge. This chapter addresses this issue and takes a microfoundational approach to develop a typology of subsidiary managers’ attentional engagement on key boundary spanning strategic activities. By substantiating middle managers’ strategic activities outside the realm of the direct TMT perspective, the chapter proposes an integrated framework of middle managers’ horizontal boundary spanning activities in multinational corporations (MNCs). Furthermore, this chapter reveals insights on the true levels of strategic coordination required to manage large complex organizations, and how managers focus their attention on different horizontal activities to drive corporate entrepreneurship depending on the specific agenda of their management context.
Network embeddedness and transfer of information and innovation in MNCS - the dual role of the su... more Network embeddedness and transfer of information and innovation in MNCS - the dual role of the subsidiary
In this paper, we adopt a resource-dependence perspective to shed light on the consequences of su... more In this paper, we adopt a resource-dependence perspective to shed light on the consequences of subsidiary’s strategic initiatives. We investigate how a subsidiary’s strategic initiatives contribute to its bargaining power, and how headquarters intervention – through granting attention or monitoring – affects the realization of its goals. Using structural equation modeling, our hypotheses are tested by drawing on a sample of subsidiaries located in three different countries. Our results show that subsidiaries are not able to increase their inter-unit power through initiatives unless they get headquarters attention. Subsidiary initiatives have a direct effect on subsidiary autonomy but the caveat is that initiatives also evoke headquarters monitoring, which in turn decreases the subsidiary’s autonomy. Acknowledgment: Support from the Advanced Institute of Management Research (AIM), is gratefully acknowledged. Tina C. Ambos Vienna University of Economics and Business Administration Aug...
ABSTRACT This paper analyzes the MNC subsidiaries’ trade-off between the need for knowledge creat... more ABSTRACT This paper analyzes the MNC subsidiaries’ trade-off between the need for knowledge creation and the need for knowledge protection, and relates it to the extent of knowledge outflows generated within the host location. Combining research in International Business with Social Theory, we build a conceptual framework suggesting that subsidiaries that extensively draw on external knowledge sources are also more likely to generate knowledge outflows to local firms. We argue that this may be explained by the subsidiaries’ willingness to build the trust that facilitates the establishment of reciprocal knowledge linkages. However, when the value of the subsidiary's knowledge stock is very high, the need for knowledge protection restrains reciprocity mechanisms in knowledge exchanges, thus reducing the extent of knowledge outflows to the host location. This study contributes to the literature on the firm-level antecedents of FDI-mediated local knowledge outflows, as well as to the broad IB literature on the relationship between subsidiaries and their host regions. The implications for managers and policy-makers are also discussed.
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Papers by Ulf Andersson