Carlos Garcia-Pont

Subsidiary Strategy: The Embeddedness Component

This article develops the concept of internal subsidiary embeddedness as the canvas within which subsidiary strategy takes place. Developing an inductive model, we identify three hierarchical levels of embeddedness. The first level is operational embeddedness, which relates to interlocking day-to-day relations. The second level is capability embeddedness, which concerns the development of competitive capabilities for the multinational as a whole. The third level is strategic embeddedness, which concerns a subsidiarys participation in a multinational corporations strategy setting. We derived our concept of embeddedness from an in-depth case study. Embeddedness is not merely an outcome of the institutional setting in which a subsidiary is situated, but is a resource a subsidiary can manage by means of manipulating dependencies or exerting influence over the allocation of critical resources. A subsidiary can modify its embeddedness to change its strategic restraints. Therefore, the development of subsidiary embeddedness becomes an integral part of subsidiary strategy.

Managing internationally: International dimensions of the managerial task

Following a review of the literature on managing internationally, Juan Roure, Jose Luis Alvarez, Carlos Garcia-Pont and Jose Nueno challenge the conventional view. This says that international managers are generalists with a global mind set, and that in the process of internationalisation the internal and external tasks of the manager are affected equally. The authors use field research to demonstrate that global managers are less in evidence than is commonly believed, regional management is more widespread than global management, and the internationalisation of managers affects their internal activities more than their external ones. Internal and external tasks of managers are mapped, and future lines for research identified.

Fighting for Power: The Strategy of Global MNCs' Subsidiaries

The purpose of this paper is to examine the relational configurations of a subsidiary that belongs to a global industry such as auto components manufacture. As global integration pressures are high in this environment, there are pressures for centralization and some subsidiaries are losing resources and capabilities to the benefit of headquarters or other subsidiaries. Consequently, they may fight within the MNC to retain control over certain resources and capabilities, mainly by building strong relationships with local suppliers, providers, customers or other units of the MNC that may reach global relevance. While previous studies have identified the significance of networks as a metaphor for understanding MNC structure, in this paper we attempt to show how analysis of a subsidiarys networks of contacts can be a useful tool to identify the role the subsidiary is playing in the multinational as a whole. It shows how networks can be used by the subsidiary as a tool to proactively develop a formulated strategy.

Network Analysis and Corporate Alliances

By reviewing studies on networks of alliances within industries, the paper argues that there is a need to include the analysis of alliance networks into industry analysis. It also argues that network analytical techniques can help towards this task.