The ‘hollowing out’ of the national subsidiary in multinational companies: is it happening, does it matter, what are the strategic consequences?

Gregor Murray, Patrice Jalette, Jacques Bélanger and Christian Lévesque
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Gregor Murray: Professor and Canada Research Chair on Globalization and Work, École de relations industrielles and Interuniversity Research Centre on Globalization and Work (CRIMT), Université de Montréal
Patrice Jalette: Professor, École de relations industrielles and Interuniversity Research Centre on Globalization and Work (CRIMT), Université de Montréal
Jacques Bélanger: Professor, Département des relations industrielles and Interuniversity Research Centre on Globalization and Work (CRIMT), Université Laval
Christian Lévesque: Professor of Employment Relations and Interuniversity Research Centre on Globalization and Work (CRIMT), HEC Montréal

Transfer: European Review of Labour and Research, 2014, vol. 20, issue 2, 217-236

Abstract: This article explores the effects of corporate organizational structure and of subsidiary discretion within multinational companies (MNCs). It draws on a representative survey of the most senior HR practitioner in foreign- and domestic-controlled subsidiaries in Canada. Key findings point to the importance of subsidiary discretion, especially discretion over human resource management. Greater subsidiary discretion is associated with a range of positive outcomes: securing international product and service mandates; greater subsidiary influence within the MNC; the promotion and protection of subsidiary employment (increased headcounts, less offshoring, more onshoring); and enhanced engagement with domestic institutions. These results highlight the strategic importance for union, civil society and public policy actors, as well as MNC subsidiary managers themselves, to focus on the drivers of subsidiary discretion, as opposed to the ‘hollowing out’ of corporate structures, and to weave that discretion into larger policy narratives to promote local economies.

Keywords: Multinational companies; subsidiaries; corporate structure; hollowing out; global value chains; human resource management; discretion; offshoring; institutional engagement; unions (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2014
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:sae:treure:v:20:y:2014:i:2:p:217-236

DOI: 10.1177/1024258914525564

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