دانلود رایگان شرکت چند ملیتی از فروش به نوآوری

ABSTRACT

Whereas the innovation-related evolution of multinational enterprise (MNE) subsidiaries has been extensively studied, the numerous sales subsidiaries in MNE networks have received little attention in this context. This study examines the evolution process of a sales subsidiary towards acquiring innovation-related capabilities and actively supporting innovation activities of a MNE. The evolution is explained in terms of technical information flow in an in-depth case study of a semiconductor MNEs’ sales subsidiary in South Korea. We find that the evolution of the sales subsidiary to innovation support has been enabled by a combination of subsidiary-related, lead market-related and event-related factors. We contribute to the literature on MNE subsidiary evolution by studying the unexplored evolution of a sales subsidiary. We combine the general framework of subsidiary evolution with the lead user perspective and suggest directions for potential theory extensions on MNE subsidiary evolution

6. Contributions, limitations and managerial implications

This study contributes to the literature on MNE subsidiary evolution by offering an in-depth case analysis of a sales subsidiary. We reveal that the role change and acquisition of innovation capabilities by the subsidiary were initiated by a subsidiary-driven project to develop a product for a customer. The project resulted in the subsidiary’s involvement with the customer firms’ new product development at an early stage,triggering mutual exchange of technical information between the customer and subsidiary, and the subsidiary and parent firm. The evolution process was examined from the perspective of the technology information flow in a customer-subsidiary-parent firm network from unidirectional to bidirectional flow. Future research on MNE subsidiary evolution should give more consideration to sales subsidiaries and ‘emergent’ strategies, and combine different theoretical perspectives.