Boundary Spanning Activities of Corporate HQ Executives Insights from a Longitudinal Study

Birkinshaw, Julian; Ambos, Tina C.; Bouquet, Cyril

doi:10.1111/joms.12260

Cited by 104 publications

(101 citation statements)

References 104 publications

(187 reference statements)

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“…However, when bicultural immigrants distance themselves from their home country identity, they tend to hinder collaborators by micromanaging, narrowing communication channels, and suppressing input. These studies (Birkinshaw et al, ; Kane and Lavina, ) suggest that even though boundary spanning can be an organizational capability, individual actors play a critical role in development of such a capability.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Boundary Spanning in Global Organizations

Schotter

Mudambi

Doz

et al. 2017

J Management Studies

262

220

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Global organizations are inherently complex. The spatial dispersion of activities results in organizational subunits becoming embedded in local host‐country contexts that differ from their parents’ home country contexts. These subunits are also embedded in their parents’ corporate networks, causing them to differ from their locally embedded peers. The dual embeddedness and associated complexities create complex and often implicit boundaries. In addition, the contextual and operational diversity that affects the boundaries in global organizations are continually changing. Hence managing and coordinating across different inter‐ and intra‐organizational boundaries has emerged as an important capability for the success of global organizations. So far, we have a limited understanding of the factors that affect the complexity and effectiveness of the boundary spanning function. In this article, we focus on clarifying these key issues and propose a model for effective boundary spanning in global organizations.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Boundary Spanning in Global Organizations

Schotter

Mudambi

Doz

et al. 2017

J Management Studies

262

220

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…Some recent studies have shown that headquarters activities are geographically dispersed and configured in increasingly complex ways. Large firms (e.g., General Electric, IBM, Lenovo, and Royal Dutch Shell) have disaggregated and dispersed their financial, legal, and managerial headquarters activities across different locations [33][34][35]. Pan (2003) investigated the relocation of the headquarters of listed firms from 2001 to 2012 in China and found that Beijing and Shanghai were the most attractive cities for inter-province relocation.…”

Section: Literature Reviewmentioning

confidence: 99%

Spatial Distribution Pattern of the Headquarters of Listed Firms in China

Zhang

Yang

2018

Sustainability

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This study chose 4667 listed firms with headquarters in China as the research objects. The spatial aggregations of headquarters in sub-periods and subsectors were investigated based on prefecture-level cities using Global Moran's I statistic, the Getis-Ord Gi* statistic, and kernel density estimation. The spatial association and frequent patterns of headquarters belonging to different sectors were analyzed using the Apriori algorithm. The results showed the following: (1) Most headquarters of listed firms agglomerate around megacities and concentrate in the coastal regions.(2) Many prefer that headquarters be located in an area within a 5 km radius, forming the pivotal local industry cluster. (3) Industrial, information technology, and consumer discretionary firms show a higher degree of agglomeration than materials and health care firms. Materials and consumer discretionary industries have a stronger spillover effect on surrounding cities compared to industrial, information technology, and health care firms. (4) Service industries show a strong spatial association with other sectors at all distance thresholds and frequent items. These results can provide a reference for future considerations of headquarters locations, industrial development, and the reshaping of urban networks.

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“…Related to this point, the cross-sectional nature of our study was limiting our analysis and future research should investigate the antecedents of dual headquarters involvement prior to measuring the involvement itself and subsequently look at the outcomes of it (see e.g. the recent longitudinal study of boundary spanning activities of corporate headquarters by Birkinshaw et al 2017). Third, while we contend that subsidiary innovation projects offer a fertile testing ground for the furthering of theory on the nature of the headquarters, the sample of innovations under study ran the risk of being successful, i.e., there is a risk under-sampling of failure (Denrell 2003).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Beyond Simple Configurations: The Dual Involvement of Divisional and Corporate Headquarters in Subsidiary Innovation Activities in Multibusiness Firms

et al. 2017

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We investigate ''dual headquarters involvement'', i.e., corporate and divisional headquarters' simultaneous involvement in innovation development projects hosted by subsidiaries of multibusiness firms. Drawing on selective hierarchical involvement theory and the literature on subsidiary network embeddedness, we analyze 83 innovation projects in 22 multibusiness firms and find that the number of partners in the projects, rather than subsidiary intra-and inter-divisional embeddedness acts as a driver of dual headquarters involvement. We do however find that intra-and inter-divisional embeddedness is positively related to dual headquarters involvement when the number of partners in the innovation project is relatively large. These results lend support to the idea that parenting in complex organizations entail complex headquarters structures. Our results suggest that we need to go beyond simple conceptualizations of headquarters and that considering different dimensions of the innovating subsidiary's network helps in explaining dual headquarters involvement.

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Boundary Spanning Activities of Corporate HQ Executives Insights from a Longitudinal Study

Cited by 104 publications

References 104 publications

Boundary Spanning in Global Organizations

Boundary Spanning in Global Organizations

Spatial Distribution Pattern of the Headquarters of Listed Firms in China

Beyond Simple Configurations: The Dual Involvement of Divisional and Corporate Headquarters in Subsidiary Innovation Activities in Multibusiness Firms

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