Abstract
The more that organizations globalize, the more of a challenge it is for them to coordinate relations between units across nations. Direct control of subsidiaries by Headquarters is hampered by problems of distance, language, culture and differences in interests. In order to succeed, multinationals need to develop collaborative relationships between subsidiaries and integrate them toward a common objective. This chapter analyzes the determinants of successful inter-subsidiaries collaboration involving knowledge flows in a Japanese Multinational. Using action research and interviews with more than 100 local managers and expatriates in nine subsidiaries, the chapter identifies five key roles of expatriates: globalizer, localizer, agent of control, agent of change, and knowledge transfer. It further investigates the factors that influence the ability of expatriates to fully perform their roles, highlighting the importance of collaborative relations with local managers for reverse knowledge transfer of innovation generated in developing countries subsidiaries, the chapter highlight how expatriates are crucial to the success of collaborative relations between subsidiaries, to “localize” innovation generated in the headquarters and to cascade-down pro-sustainability pressures form environmentally aware customers in the multinational home country.
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Notes
- 1.
To understand this and the relationship between HQs and subsidiaries, we draw upon considerations of control and autonomy. Johnston (2005, pp.77–78) suggests that control and autonomy are clearly, albeit inversely, related and that the autonomy of a subsidiary is the antithesis of its control by HQs. The control mechanisms adapted by an MNE have important effects upon the subsidiary’s autonomy. MNEs design their international coordination by setting different subsidiaries with different capabilities in the most suitable sites trying to optimize the value chain. The more important the subsidiary core business is, the more bargaining power the subsidiary has to negotiate higher levels of autonomy.
- 2.
It is worth pointing out that the cooperative relationship, which has been identified as a contingent factor, is different from a coalition in that the former emerges from the concept of contingency, not from the skill of an individual, and does not necessarily involve expatriates. A coalition must either be built or subscribed to by the expatriates themselves, and it is developed through a political process using their own networks and personal contacts (Rodgers 2007).
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Kusumoto, M. (2014). The Role of Expatriates in Cross-Subsidiary Collaboration. In: Vazquez-Brust, D., Sarkis, J., Cordeiro, J. (eds) Collaboration for Sustainability and Innovation: A Role For Sustainability Driven by the Global South?. Greening of Industry Networks Studies, vol 3. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-007-7633-3_3
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