Organizational identity work in MNE subsidiaries: Managing dual embeddedness

Helene Loe Colman (), Birgitte Grøgaard () and Inger G. Stensaker ()
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Helene Loe Colman: BI Norwegian Business School
Birgitte Grøgaard: BI Norwegian Business School
Inger G. Stensaker: NHH Norwegian School of Economics

Journal of International Business Studies, 2022, vol. 53, issue 9, No 8, 1997-2022

Abstract: Abstract This paper adopts an organizational identity work perspective to examine how MNE subsidiaries manage dual embeddedness to strategically position themselves in both their local context and in the global MNE. Prior research suggests that although dual embeddedness provides benefits, it also brings challenges, as subsidiaries must effectively balance external pressures and expectations with internal ones. Through a qualitative case study of organizational identity work in the subsidiaries of a Norwegian MNE, we reveal the process through which subsidiary members manage dual embeddedness in their day-to-day work. We develop a model that conceptualizes organizational identity work in MNE subsidiaries as an ongoing process, one that enables the subsidiary to position itself as a legitimate actor across contexts, while reproducing the perceived tensions of dual embeddedness. This combination thus continually fuels organizational identity work. Our findings have both theoretical and managerial implications. We provide important theoretical insight into how MNE subsidiaries achieve flexibility to position themselves as globally and locally embedded. For managers, this implies that trying to remove the tensions of dual embeddedness – for instance, by privileging the global above the local – may hinder flexibility.

Keywords: qualitative studies; organizational identity work; headquarters–subsidiary roles and relations (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2022
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (5)

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DOI: 10.1057/s41267-022-00563-1

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