跨国公司总部如何增加价值外文翻译.docVIP

外文翻译 原文 How do MNC headquarters add value Material Source: Management International Review Author: Bj?rn Ambos and Volker Mahnke Introduction Research on multinational corporations (MNCs) has evolved along various trajectories. Not only have our conceptualizations of the MNC shifted but our understanding of their headquarters has changed as well. Departing from more general notions on corporate strategy and structure, early MNC research primarily took the whole firm as the unit of analysis. In most of these studies, headquarters simply acted as the locus of hierarchical decision making and control, while little consideration was given to the resistance headquarters may face when implementing their decisions. The formulation of the integration-responsiveness framework marked a significant turning point in the ensuing debate on MNC headquarter functions. In explicating the dual pressures for local adaptation and global integration, researchers opened the door to a more thorough investigation of headquarters-subsidiary relationships. Similarly, the reconceptualization of MNCs as networks led scholars to take a more active interest in the role of individual subsidiaries as well as their differences within the MNC. Resulting subsidiary typologies were instrumental in advancing research by providing contingencies for their management by headquarters. In a broader framework, these studies also helped to improve our understanding of the subtle notions of informal control and the non-hierarchical aspects of multinational management. On the downside, however, the shift in research emphasis led to a decreasing interest in the role of headquarters. For some scholars, the advent of sophisticated subsidiary charters and network-like structures in the MNC marked the end of corporate headquarters altogether. Such scholars proposed that headquarters would not differ significantly from any other unit in the network. However, regardless of whether such extreme positions are justified