Knowledge Flows and the Structure of Control Within Multinational Corporations

Abstract

Virtually all research on strategic control within multinational corporations (MNCs) has focused on macro differences in control systems and processes across entire MNCs. Taking a less macro (i.e., subsidiary-specific contingency perspective), this article examines how, within the same corporation, the nature of corporate control might also vary systematically across subsidiaries. Differences in subsidiary contexts are analyzed along two dimensions: (a) the extent to which the subsidiary is a user of knowledge from the rest of the corporation and (b) the extent to which the subsidiary is a provider of such knowledge to the rest of the corporation.