Subsidiary Initiative in the Modern Multinational Corporation

In this paper, I review and evaluate the concept of subsidiary initiative, and I discuss how theorizing about the multinational corporation (MNC) in general has been informed by studies focusing on subsidiary initiative and related subsidiary-level issues. In the second part of the paper, I discuss some of the trends underway in the world of business that are influencing the nature and amount of subsidiary initiative observed in MNCs. Most of these seem likely to make subsidiary initiative more common, though some of them will favor externally focused initiatives while others will favor internally focused ones.