EconPapers    
Economics at your fingertips  
 

Knowledge sharing and subsidiary R&D mandate development: A matter of dual embeddedness

Fariza Achcaoucaou, Paloma Miravitlles and Fidel León-Darder

International Business Review, 2014, vol. 23, issue 1, 76-90

Abstract: Sharing knowledge across borders has proven to be especially relevant to multinational corporations (MNCs). Foreign subsidiaries have become active players in these knowledge flows. However, the network effects of interacting with multiple agents on the evolution of the R&D role played by subsidiaries are still undeveloped. The present study focuses on changes in subsidiary capabilities and on the dynamic mechanisms by which their R&D role might evolve, especially, as a consequence of their interaction with a variety of knowledge networks. We examine this issue by conducting four longitudinal case studies of subsidiaries operating in Spain. Using an inductive approach to theory building, we develop a general theoretical framework considering the subsidiary's embeddedness in the knowledge networks within the MNC (internal) and within the host country (external). We find that evolving towards a competence-creating mandate is characterised by the simultaneous growth of embeddedness in both internal and external networks; otherwise, a subsidiary may gravitate away from upgrading its R&D role. Thus, the contribution of this paper is to present a dynamic model that sheds light on how internal and external knowledge embeddedness interact in generating outcomes for subsidiary R&D roles.

Keywords: Dual embeddedness; Knowledge; Mandate; Multinational; R&D; Role evolution; Subsidiary (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2014
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (42)

Downloads: (external link)
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0969593113001169
Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:iburev:v:23:y:2014:i:1:p:76-90

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
http://www.elsevier.com/wps/find/journaldescription.cws_home/133/bibliographic
http://www.elsevier. ... me/133/bibliographic

DOI: 10.1016/j.ibusrev.2013.08.006

Access Statistics for this article

International Business Review is currently edited by P. Ghauri

More articles in International Business Review from Elsevier
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Catherine Liu (repec@elsevier.com).

 
Page updated 2024-12-28
Handle: RePEc:eee:iburev:v:23:y:2014:i:1:p:76-90