European MNE subsidiaries' embeddedness and innovation performance: Moderating role of external search depth and breadth

Ismail Gölgeci, Alberto Ferraris, Ahmad Arslan and Shlomo Y. Tarba

Journal of Business Research, 2019, vol. 102, issue C, 97-108

Abstract: While much research has been conducted on the link between embeddedness and innovation outcomes, less attention has been paid on how and when MNE subsidiaries can effectively leverage their internal embeddedness to achieve greater innovation performance. We hypothesize knowledge transfer as a mediating mechanism to channel the potential role of MNE subsidiaries' internal embeddedness in innovation performance. Moreover, we explore the moderating influences of external search depth and breadth on subsidiaries' internal knowledge transfer and innovation performance. To test our framework, we rely on primary data collected from 91 subsidiaries of eleven European MNEs. The results show the degree of knowledge transfer from other MNE units mediates the link between subsidiaries' internal embeddedness and their innovation performance. We also find that external search depth positively moderates the link between the degree of knowledge transfer and subsidiary's innovation performance, while external search breadth does not. We illustrate that knowledge transfer mechanisms and the moderating role of external search approaches can be instrumental in channeling and effectively realizing the role of subsidiary internal embeddedness in innovation performance.

Keywords: External search depth; External search breadth; Subsidiary embeddedness; Subsidiary innovation performance; Knowledge transfer; Relational embeddedness (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2019
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (27)

Downloads: (external link)
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0148296319303133
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:jbrese:v:102:y:2019:i:c:p:97-108

DOI: 10.1016/j.jbusres.2019.05.011

Access Statistics for this article

Journal of Business Research is currently edited by A. G. Woodside

More articles in Journal of Business Research from Elsevier
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Catherine Liu ().