Learning in MNCs: How subsidiary managers do (and do not) create global solutions

Esther Tippmann (), Pamela Sharkey Scott () and Vincent Mangematin ()
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Esther Tippmann: UCD - University College Dublin [Dublin]
Pamela Sharkey Scott: Dublin Institute of Technology - Dublin Institute of Technology
Vincent Mangematin: MTS - Management Technologique et Strategique - EESC-GEM Grenoble Ecole de Management

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Abstract: It is widely acknowledged in international business (IB) that the task of subsidiaries in multinational corporation (MNC) learning is to adapt, create and diffuse new knowledge. Departing from the common focus on the subsidiary's assigned mandate, this study takes a problemistic search perspective to explore subsidiary managers' actions in detail. A qualitative study was conducted into 38 solution finding processes employed in four subsidiaries. The paper's main contribution is a framework of subsidiary managers' roles in MNC learning, depicting how the framing of the problem influences knowledge search and solution finding activities, and how different activities result in learning at local and global levels. Further implications for MNC knowledge and organizational learning, the management of interdependencies and integration, and for economic geography literatures are discussed.

Keywords: Multinational Corporations (MNCs) and Enterprises (MNEs); Organizational Learning; Knowledge Seeking Behavior; Knowledge Transfer and Innovation in MNCs/MNEs; Global Learning; Case Theoretic Approaches (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2012
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Published in Journal of International Business Studies, 2012, 43, pp.P. 746-771. ⟨10.1057/jibs.2012.25⟩

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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:hal:journl:hal-00756252

DOI: 10.1057/jibs.2012.25

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