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The article develops a model which conceptualizes headquarter-subsidiary relations in the multinational corporation as a multilevel discursive struggle between key managers. At the first level, the relations are conceptualized as a discursive struggle over decisions and actions using rationalistic discourses. At the second level, they are viewed as a discursive struggle over power relations using control and autonomy discourses. Finally, underlying the first two, at the third level, headquarter-subsidiary relations are conceptualized as a discursive struggle over managers’ worldviews using cultural (pre)conceptions about “the self” and “the other.”

This chapter presents an in-depth inductive analysis of a parent organization and the network of subsidiaries that it has created. The authors identify the significance of organizational processes label as “disciplining entrepreneurialism.” These are activities that encourage entrepreneurial individuals to propose and lead new businesses while also promoting strong identification with the parent firm. The authors explore the emergence of this phenomenon through an examination of subsidiary–headquarter relations. While conventional conceptualization of inter-organizational collaboration has tended to exclude ­subsidiary–headquarter network relationships, we use the Systems of Exchange framework (Biggart & Delbridge, 2004) to categorize disciplined entrepreneurship alongside market, hierarchy, and network relations. Disciplining entrepreneurialism is not experienced as either market nor hierarchy by the individual members in the subsidiaries, and these subsidiaries move between the two in ways that are not adequately captured as a network either. This disciplining entrepreneurship approach can thus be contrasted with networks as well as differentiated from both markets and hierarchies. Entrepreneurship is encouraged while maintaining commitment to the overarching enterprise of the parent company.

This paper aims to investigate the ability of performance measurement systems (PMS) that were implemented by headquarters at foreign subsidiaries to influence decisions made by the subsidiary. This is important because PMS are important control mechanisms in the relationship between headquarters and subsidiaries within multinational firms.

Acknowledging that controlling foreign subsidiaries is particularly challenging when they are geographically distant to headquarters, the authors collect survey‐based data from Chinese subsidiaries of multinational firms. They develop several hypotheses which are tested on a sample of 148 subsidiaries using multiple regression analysis.

The results suggest that the influence of headquarter‐designed PMS on subsidiary decisions is higher when the compensation of subsidiary management is linked to PMS, when additional formal control is enforced, when PMS are affected by external events, when PMS are comprehensive, and when subsidiaries are embedded into the local business environment. Also, the authors find a negative interaction effect between comprehensive PMS and the extent to which PMS are affected by external events on the decision‐influence of PMS.

Limitations arise from the study setting in China. As management accounting research originates from and has mostly focused on Western countries, it remains somewhat unclear whether the constructs and instruments used in this study are fully transferable to China, despite the statistical and conceptual remedies that were applied.

The study offers new insights into the role of PMS in multinational companies. It extends earlier research by offering empirical evidence from one of the most important emerging economies. As such, the results are relevant for almost every global firm using PMS to control foreign subsidiaries.

How headquarter (HQ) and subsidiary actors end conflicts and reach agreements is an important but still under-researched question in multinational corporations (MNC) literature. This conceptual article approaches these conflict dynamics from the Convention Theory perspective. Convention Theory draws attention to justice principles (known as “order of worth”) and to the material aspects in relations between MNC actors. We offer a framework that contributes to HQ-subsidiary relations research in three ways: (1) it links conflicts to justice principles, (2) it enriches the understanding of the stability of agreements, and (3) it sheds light on the activities needed for realizing preferred arrangements.

The purpose of this paper is to propose potential challenges faced by multinational companies (MNCs) managing corporate social responsibility (CSR) strategies.

The paper is based on two inductive case studies of French MNCs in the retail sector. Data from interviews and documents were collected and analysed at the headquarters in France and the Brazilian subsidiary.

The paper contributes in the following ways: five challenges are proposed that must be faced by MNCs in managing their CSR strategy. The challenges are related to the link between literature and three dimensions and five sub‐dimensions that emerged from the two cases studied: the governance structure (the structure of the CSR department and dialogue with stakeholders); corporate ethics (the definition of objectives and corporate posture); and organizational learning (awareness and information exchanged about CSR).

As this is a topic that is little addressed by the CSR's literature, a future research agenda for the relation between the headquarters and the subsidiary in considering CSR strategies can be established. It is suggested that the five challenges presented here should be deeply explored and potential solutions for each one can be investigated in depth.

The proposed challenges can yield some implications for managers of MNCs who are intending to manage the headquarters/subsidiary relationship considering the MNCs' CSR strategies. They should identify adapted ways to introduce actions related to the three dimensions and five sub‐dimensions presented here.

Little attention has been paid to this specific link between CSR and MNC literature: the relation between the headquarters and the subsidiary considering CSR strategies. This paper proposes some challenges that can help researchers investigate potential solutions and managers to have an agenda to be addressed.

This paper aims to detail the actions of the Russian subsidiary of a multinational IT company, during the COVID–19 pandemic, aimed toward the exploration and exploitation of unexpected business opportunities. It depicts the strategic and tactical actions of the subsidiary and corporate initiatives during the pandemic, revealing tensions between the subsidiary and its corporate parent on implementation of each’s initiatives.

A case study is presented, based on action research, using internal documents from the company under consideration, participation in various working meetings, meetings with customers and interviews with subsidiary management.

The strategic actions implemented by the subsidiary during the pandemic exemplify strategic agility, i.e. a set of activities carried out by a company that create value in a turbulent and unpredictable environment which in turn require systematic variations in specific processes, products and structures. Some of those variations included the unauthorized amendment of internal corporate rules, leading to tensions between the subsidiary and parent company. This case illustrates that such parent-subsidiary tensions are an inevitable element of achieving agility at the subsidiary level, especially during rapid and unpredictable changes in the business environment.

This study presents the flow of events in one multinational corporation subsidiary. However, the authors speculate that similar situations (subsidiary actions exploiting emergent business opportunities and which have been restricted by rigid internal corporate rules and regulations and low receptivity from corporate headquarters) occurred in many multinational corporation subsidiaries, aiming to explore and exploit nascent business opportunities in local markets during the pandemic.

The study confirms the necessity for the review of the functioning of the corporate immune system of large multinational corporations to allow more subsidiary initiatives to flourish than before the pandemic.

The paper presents a case of strategic agility at subsidiary level during the pandemic. It also uncovers the black-boxing managerial decision-making processes in headquarters-subsidiary relations during the extreme turbulence of business environment.

We demonstrate the role of regulatory fit and moral emotions, that is, contempt and anger, in influencing conflict resolution between the headquarters and subsidiary boundary spanners. We develop a theoretical framework, which integrates literature on international business and headquarters-subsidiary relationships with regulatory focus, moral emotions, and conflict resolution. The chapter outlines the relationships between the regulatory focus of a headquarters’ boundary spanner, and his or her manner of engagement, conflict sensitivity, violation of code, moral emotions, and the way conflicts are resolved. The theoretical framework developed here provides a starting point for future research on bargaining processes between boundary spanners of a multinational corporation (MNC). This chapter is the first one to discuss regulatory focus, and moral emotions, in the contexts of a MNC headquarters-subsidiary relationship.

This paper aims to present the impact of several likely trajectories of development for global industries, namely, re-shoring, regionalization, diversification and replication, recently identified by the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development, on the evolution of the corporate parenting styles (CPSs) of multinational corporations (MNCs).

This viewpoint presents a novel view of CPSs as a set of relationships between the corporate centers of MNCs and their subsidiaries, including domestic ones, identifies the most likely connections between anticipated trajectories of development in global industries and the evolution of CPSs of MNCs and outlines directions for further research.

The anticipated trajectories of the development of global industries may result in changes in prevailing CPSs and lead to the proliferation of previously less common parenting styles. Although many of the anticipated changes in CPSs may be pursued by corporate headquarters (CHQs), a combination of powerful subsidiaries putting bottom-up pressure on CHQs and powerful owners capable of imposing requirements on top management teams and generating top-down pressure may affect the CPSs used by corporations.

The authors connect possible trajectories of development for global industries with the evolution of CPSs of MNCs.

The purpose of this paper is to discuss the contributions that critical realist ethnographies can make to an understanding of the multinational corporation.

This paper draws on a discussion of methodological challenges in researching the multinational corporation and the ways in which critical realist ethnographies can respond to these challenges. The example of research on the transfer of management practices is used to illustrate this.

Taking the example of researching the transfer of management practices within the multinational, the paper argues that the potential of critical realist ethnography including critical realist global ethnography to contribute to the field of International Business and International Management remains relatively untapped.

Adopting the sociological imagination of the critical realist ethnographer has implications for the kinds of questions that are asked by the researcher and the ways in which we seek to address these methodologically. Researching from a critical standpoint fruitful empirical themes for further research relate to the experience of change for example in business systems, internationalization of organizations and “globalization”.

The critical realist ethnographer can contribute insights into the complex social and political processes within the multinational and provide insights into how social structures are both impacting on and impacted by individuals and groups. Ethnographic research located within a critical realist framework has the potential to address questions of how stability and change take place within specific structural, cultural and power relations.

At the methodological level, this paper highlights the potential of critical realist ethnography in researching the multinational, in addressing significant questions facing the critical researcher and in gaining a privileged insight into the lived experience of globalization.

This purpose of this paper is to explore variations in the extent of control mechanisms, according to country of origin and organizational characteristics, in a challenging country of domicile.

A survey research design involving the use of a questionnaire as the primary data source was adopted. A total of 350 subsidiaries were initially randomly selected and contacted in person, or via telephone and e-mail, of which 147 agreed to take part in the study and responded to the survey.

The authors find that Multinational Enterprises (MNEs) from highly financialized Liberal Market Economies will be associated with a greater reliance on formalized control mechanisms; this will enable the MNE’s headquarters to closely monitor subsidiary managers according to objective measures, to ensure that the maximum shareholder value is released.

This study reveals a greater reliance on control mechanisms in larger firms, reflecting a desire to maximize bureaucratic economies of scale.

The authors find that the presence of expatriates regardless of country of origin leads to greater decentralization, suggesting foreign firms do not trust local staff.

This is one of the few studies of this nature conducted for the region of Middle East – and the only one the authors are aware of for Saudi Arabia. Further, it sheds new light on the impact of contextual circumstances on how closely firms monitor their subsidiaries, the challenges of doing business in the Gulf region and the consequences of the large-scale usage of expatriates.