Mapping the elephant: an organizing framework for subsidiary typologies

Abstract

Despite the significant number of subsidiary typologies present in the literature, there seems to be only limited scope for generalizing the results or capturing the wide range of roles that subsidiaries perform in multinational firms. From a theoretical viewpoint, extant typologies derive subsidiary roles from different multinational firm strategy types, rather than from examination of subsidiaries in their own right. Further, most typologies use only one or two dimensions to distinguish subsidiaries, limiting the research frame of both conceptual and empirical work. This paper proposes a four-dimensional new organizing framework that attempts to avoid under-specification while retaining tractability. A focus on knowledge creation and utilization leads to a division of subsidiary roles into leader, innovator, implementer, and observer, based on what the subsidiary does. Two scope dimensions (geographic scope and product scope) are then superimposed to capture the range of the subsidiary’s influence. The result is finer-grained typology that better captures the range of subsidiary roles seen in the literature and in reality. Comparisons of this proposed organizing framework with past research is discussed and avenues for future research are explored.