Explaining autonomy variations across value‐chain activities in foreign‐owned subsidiaries

Abstract

This article is one of the first to combine the asset bundling model and neo-configurational perspective to explain autonomy variations across different value-chain activities in foreign-owned subsidiaries. We develop tentative answers to three research questions based on survey data of subsidiaries located in Taiwan and Thailand. We use fuzzy set qualitative comparative analysis technique to analyze the data. We found that competence bundles in primary and support activities are key for autonomy development across basic and advanced value-adding activities.Strong relationships with local business networks are more important for autonomy development than links to universities or governmental institutions. The global city location plays a lesser role than expected and the geographic distance is a hindrance to autonomy development in basic as well as advanced value-chain activities. K E Y W O R D Sasset bundling, autonomy, emerging market, foreign-owned subsidiaries, fsQCA, neoconfigurational perspective

The internationalization of meatpacking firms: a competence-based approach

“…A meatpacker will adopt a raw material seeker strategy when it intends to engage in upstream activities, such as slaughtering activities. In this sense, the subsidiary will function as a competence-exploiting firm (Kingkaew and Dahms, 2019), since production knowledge can be easily transferred between production units. This strategy was the most common one pursued by the companies since most of the FDIs were made in countries that offer favorable conditions for animal protein production.…”

“…In general, there are two levels of competence: supportive competence and core competence. Supportive competences (Comi and Eppler, 2014) concern sales, production and logistics activities, which are also known as primary value-creating activities (Kingkaew and Dahms, 2019). Although supportive competences are ordinary resources, they may also play an important role in supporting core competences.…”

Configuring subsidiary performance in ambidextrous networks: The role of top management team diversity and autonomy

“…The Thai sample was based on the Department of Business Development database published by the Ministry of Commerce, and for Singapore on a Dun & Bradstreet database. Both databases have been used as a basis for survey data collection before in numerous studies (e.g., Dahms, Cabrilo, & Kingkaew, 2020; Gammelgaard et al, 2012; Kingkaew & Dahms, 2019). The data collection procedure followed the World Enterprise Survey, which regularly conducts large scale surveys in emerging markets (World Bank, 2011).…”

A configurational perspective on subsidiary top management team national diversity and performance

“…We relied on well-established survey constructs in order to increase the comparability and rigour of our study (Chidlow et al, 2015;Dahms, 2019). Where necessary, the Likert scales have been changed from 1 to 5 into 1 to 7 to take into consideration any cultural perception differences that may exist among the respondents (Harzing et al, 2009;Kingkaew and Dahms, 2019).…”