Element contents
Series: Elements in Business Strategy
Global Strategy in Our Age of Chaos
How Will the Multinational Firm Survive?
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 23 March 2024
Summary
Chaotic environments are producing unique and unprecedented challenges for multinational companies, challenges that raise important questions about whether and how multinationals will survive or wither away. This Element explores both the macro political, economic, technological, and social forces impacting international business and the strategic management adaptations that leading companies have deployed to respond to these challenges. We observe that a new organizational form – the Global Multi-Business – has evolved that may be especially adapted to respond to and challenge a world in which change is ubiquitous, with the direction of change unpredictable and the pace of change accelerating. It accomplishes this through the strategic assembly of the organization and the animation of its many parts.
Keywords
- Type
- Element
- Information
- Series: Elements in Business StrategyOnline ISBN: 9781009384957Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication: 02 May 2024
References
Bair, J. 2008. Analyzing economic organization: Embedded networks and global chains compared. Economy and Society, 37: 339–364.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Barnard, C. 1938. The Functions of the Executive. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.Google Scholar
Bartlett, C. A., and Ghoshal, S. 1989. Managing across borders: The transnational solution. Boston, MA: Harvard Business School Press.Google Scholar
Blinder, A. S. 2006. Offshoring: The next industrial revolution? Foreign Affairs, 85/2: 113–128.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Buckley, P. J., and Ghauri, P. N. 2004. Globalization, economic geography, and the strategy of multinational enterprises. Journal of International Business Studies, 35: 81–98.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Buckley, P. J., and Strange, R. 2011. The governance of the multinational enterprise: Insights from internalization theory. Journal of Management Studies, 48: 460–470.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Buckley, P. J., Strange, R., Timmer, M. P., and de Vries, G. 2022. Rent appropriation in local value chains: The past, present, and future of intangible assets. Global Strategy Journal, 12(4): 679–696. March 31. https://doi.org/10.1002/gsj.1438.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Cantwell, J. 2013. Blurred boundaries between firms, and new boundaries within (large multinational) firms: the impact of decentralized networks for innovation. Seoul Journal of Economics, 26(1): 1–32.Google Scholar
Clark, D., and Bradsher, K. 2023. China scuttles a $5.4 billion microchip deal led by US giant Intel. New York Times, August 16. www.nytimes.com/2023/08/16/business/intel-tower-semiconductor-china.html?smid=em-share.Google Scholar
Dierickx, I., and Cool, K. 1989. Asset stock accumulation and sustainability of competitive advantage. Management Science, 35: 1504–1511.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Gereffi, G., Humphrey, J., and Sturgeon, T. 2005. The governance of global value chains. Review of International Political Economy, 12: 78–104.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ghoshal, S. and Nohria, N. 1989. Internal differentiation within multinational corporations. Strategic Management Journal, 10: 323–337.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Granovetter, M. 1985. Economic action, social structure, and embeddedness. American Journal of Sociology, 91: 481–510.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Immelt, J., Govindarajan, V., and Trimble, C. 2009. How GE is disrupting itself. Harvard Business Review, 87(10): 56–65.Google Scholar
Koza, Mitchell P., and Lewin, A. 1996. How to Manage in Times of Disorder . Mastering Strategy Series (November 22, 1999). London: Financial Times .Google Scholar
Koza, Mitchell P., and Lewin, A. 1998. The coevolution of strategic alliances. Organization Science, 9(3): 255–264.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Koza, M. P., Tallman, S., and Ataay, A. 2011. The strategic assembly of global firms: A micro-structural analysis of local learning and global adaptation. Global Strategy Journal, 1(1): 27–46.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lewin, A., and Volberda, H. 1999. Prolegomena on coevolution: A framework for research on strategy and new organizational firms. Organization Science, 10(5): 519–534.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
McDermott, G., Mudambi, R., and Parente, R. 2013. Strategic modularity and the architecture of the multinational firm. Global Strategy Journal, 3: 1–7.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Mudambi, R. 2007. Offshoring: Economic geography and the multinational firm. Journal of International Business Studies, 38 (1): 206.Google Scholar
Mudambi, R. 2008. Location, control, and innovation in knowledge-intensive industries. Journal of Economic Geography, 8: 699–725.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Narula, R. and Dunning, J. H. 2010. Multinational enterprises, development and globalization: Some clarifications and a research agenda. Oxford Development Studies, 38(3): 263–287.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Petricevic, O., and Teece, D. J. 2019. The structural reshaping of globalization: Implications for strategic sectors, profiting from innovation, and the multinational enterprise. Journal of International Business Studies, 50: 1487–1512.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Prahalad, C. K., and Hamel, G. 1985. The core competence of the corporation. Harvard Business Review, 68/3: 79–91.Google Scholar
Rugman, A. M. 2005. The Regional Multinationals. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Rugman, A. M., and D’Cruz, J. 1997. The theory of the flagship firm. European Management Journal, 15: 403–412.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Rumelt, R. P. 1974. Strategy, Structure, and Economic Performance. Boston: Division of Research, Graduate School of Business Administration, Harvard University.Google Scholar
Science Po. 2018. Multinational corporations. World Atlas of Global Issues, https://espace-mondial-atlas.sciencespo.fr/en/topic-strategies-of-transnational-actors/article-3A11-EN-multinational-corporations.html#.Google Scholar
Sturgeon, T. 2002. Modular production networks: A new American model of industrial organization. Industrial and Corporate Change, 11: 451–496.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Swanson, A. 2023. As ties to China turn toxic, even Chinese companies are breaking them. New York Times, June 15. www.nytimes.com/2023/06/15/business/economy/china-business-tiktok-shein.html?smid=em-share.Google Scholar
Tallman, S., and Koza, M. P. 2010. Keeping the global in mind: The evolution of headquarters in global multi-business firms. Management International Review, 50: 433–448.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Tallman, S. , and Koza, M. P. 2016. Strategic animation and emergent processes: Managing for efficiency and innovation in globally networked organizations. In Ambos, T., Ambos, B., and Birkinshaw, J., eds., Perspectives on Headquarters-Subsidiary Relationships in the Contemporary MNC, Research in Global Strategic Management, Vol. 17: 59–85. Bingley: Emerald.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Tallman, S. , and Koza, M. P. 2024. Reflections on global strategy in a turbulent world. In Hawk, A., Larsen, M., Leiblein, M., and Reuer, J., eds., Strategy in a Turbulent Era, pp. 2–17. Cheltenham: Edward Elgar.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Tallman, S., and Pedersen, T. 2015. What is international strategy research and what is not? Global Strategy Journal, 5: 273–277.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Yen, B. 2016. Uniqlo: A Supply Chain Going Global. Hong Kong: University of Hong Kong Case Research Center.Google Scholar
Zenger, T. R., and Hesterly, W. S. 1997. The disaggregation of corporations: Selective intervention, high-powered incentives, and molecular units. Organization Science, 8/3: 209–222.CrossRefGoogle Scholar