The bottleneck dilemma at headquarters: new product development for local markets

Abstract

Purpose

This paper aims to explore the condition under which a multinational company’s organizational headquarters influences its development of a localized overseas product.

Design/methodology/approach

Drawing on interviews with members at a Japanese multinational company’s headquarters, the authors’ analysis shows two invisible bottlenecks in the headquarters organization: the psychological resistance of the headquarters’ engineers and a lack of communication channels between the headquarters and overseas units.

Findings

The authors’ analysis shows two invisible bottlenecks in the headquarters organization: the psychological resistance of the headquarters’ engineers and a lack of communication channels between the headquarters and overseas units.

Originality/value

The authors’ research provides a rare glimpse into the ways that the conditions of local knowledge and foreign subsidiaries and the organizational conditions of home country headquarters are intertwined with one another during a period of product development.

Citation

Kim, H. and Kim, S.-Y. (2019), "The bottleneck dilemma at headquarters: new product development for local markets", Journal of Business Strategy, Vol. 40 No. 1, pp. 3-9. https://doi.org/10.1108/JBS-09-2017-0132