Cyril Bouquet

Managing Power in the Multinational Corporation: How Low-Power Actors Gain Influence

This article provides a conceptual integration and synthesis of the literature on power and influence in multinational corporations (MNCs). To provide some focus to their synthesis, the authors concentrate on the situation facing, and the strategies pursued by, low-power actors within the MNC network, that is, actors who are currently positioned in relatively weak or low-status positions vis-à-vis other actors. Drawing inspiration from Ghoshal, the authors make a clear separation between ends and means: between the objectives pursued by low-power actors (their ends) and the strategies or tactics they pursue to achieve these objectives (their means). This approach allows the authors to pull together some strands of literature that had previously been entirely separate.

The dynamics of attention markets in multinational enterprises

We examine how internal markets channel the limited attention of corporate headquarters (HQ) executives inside the multinational enterprise. In doing so, we desire to understand three related set of issues: First, why do some HQ executives invest more time and effort than others in the international marketplace? Second, what factors explain the attention that specific subsidiaries attract within the multinational system? Third, how does such attention relate to subsidiary performance? Unlike fully independent local companies, subsidiaries have fundamental ties to a corporate network that can contribute to the realization of local objectives or, on the contrary, restrict their scope of actions and hinder performance. By securing the attention they need from HQ, subsidiaries can achieve benefits that justify their association to the multinational network, without compromising the pursuit of local objectives.