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Functional Responsibilities in Subsidiary Role Studies: Literature Overview

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The Role of the Subsidiary in International Business

Abstract

This chapter provides an extensive overview of studies of a subsidiary’s roles. While concentrating on the functional responsibilities of a subsidiary, it presents various approaches to this issue. It refers to resource- and configuration-oriented research, discusses responsibility-oriented subsidiary role studies, and focuses on the latest analytical solution to the functional responsibilities of subsidiaries, namely, the subsidiary strategic role concept. Research on subsidiary roles is often perceived as homogeneous. However, the findings of this chapter indicate that it remains diversified in terms of the approaches applied to the functional responsibilities of a subsidiary. The modern approach toward the subsidiary strategic role concept opens new avenues for studies of the determinants of a subsidiary’s functional responsibilities.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    The exact wording of the questionnaire referring to the mentioned variables is not provided in the paper. Thus, it is not possible to indicate all of the possible responses included between the extreme points of assessment. However, based on the discussion part of the paper, “adaptation of manufacturing technology with perhaps a minimal capability in product adaptation” (Taggart 1998, p. 673) was another feasible answer for R&D complexity evaluation.

  2. 2.

    Both issues are mentioned only in reference to the export platform, a type of subsidiary role proposed in the paper. See Hogenbirk and Kranenburg (2006, p. 56).

  3. 3.

    The term “functional responsibilities” is purposefully used here instead of “value chain functions.” Rugman et al. (2011) group the nine value chain functions proposed by Porter (1985) into four sets of functional responsibilities: (1) innovation (technology development); (2) production (including procurement, inbound logistics, and operations); (3) sales (including outbound logistics, marketing and sales, and service); and (4) administrative functions (firm infrastructure, including financial and legal services and human resource management).

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  1. Department of International Competitiveness, Poznań University of Economics and Business, Poznań, Poland

    Marlena Dzikowska

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Dzikowska, M. (2019). Functional Responsibilities in Subsidiary Role Studies: Literature Overview. In: The Role of the Subsidiary in International Business. Palgrave Pivot, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-17527-6_3

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