Centers of excellence in multinational corporations

Abstract

This paper seeks to understand the conditions under which 'centers of excellence' emerge in foreign subsidiaries of multinational firms. We define a center of excellence as an organizational unit that embodies a set of capabilities that has been explicitly recognized by the firm as an important source of value creation, with the intention that these capabilities be leveraged by and/or disseminated to other parts of the firm. Drawing on overlapping research in international business and strategic management, we argue that the formation of centers of excellence is shaped by conditions in the subsidiary's local environment as well as by various aspects of the subsidiary's relationship with other parts of the multinational firm. Based on a survey of 99 foreign units in Canada, our results highlight the fundamental role played by parent firm investment as well as the role of internal and external organizations in the development of subsidiary capabilities. Performance implications of the center of excellence phenomenon are also explored.

The MNC as an externally embedded organization: An investigation of embeddedness overlap in local subsidiary networks

“…The framework is in line with previous work which investigates firm-internal as well as external factors and their relationship to structural phenomena of the MNC (e.g. Frost, Birkinshaw & Ensign, 2002;Bouquet & Birkinshaw, 2008;Gulati & Gargiulo, 1999).…”

“…This approach is similar to studies linking characteristics of the firm and the environment to structural phenomena of the MNC (e.g. Frost et al, 2002;Bouquet & Birkinshaw, 2008). …”

In search of the drivers of high growth in manufacturing SMEs

“…We chose to use Chief Executives as respondents in this study as they are seen as having a wide breadth of knowledge of all the organizations functions, activities and operating environment (Frost et al, 2002;Hillman and Keim, 2001).…”

Recursos, controle e autonomia na gestão internacional de serviços de uma empresa de TI e subsidiárias

“…Apesar de a GSGI conter mecanismos de comando em centros de excelência ou em organização operacional (FROST, BIRKINSHAW, ENSIGN, 2002;MOORE e BIRKINSHAW, 1999;SINHA, 2005) que podem ser encontrados em outros modelos de gestão internacional de serviços, os resultados da pesquisa indicam a diferença da GSGI para os demais modelos de gestão de serviços, principalmente no papel desempenhado pelas subsidiá-rias, na sua concorrência interna por contratos globais, e demais características relativas a autonomia e controle.…”