Headquarters–subsidiary relationships in MNCs: Fifty years of evolving research

We review the contributions to research on headquarters–subsidiary (HQS) relationships published in the Journal of World Business (known as the Columbia Journal of World Business until 1997) from the late 1960s to the present day. Based on 81 articles on the topic, we identify trends and dominant approaches in the journal's contributions to this area and link them to trends in the broader field of international management (IM) research and practice. We underline the journal's pioneering role in identifying and bringing to the forefront novel research questions and ideas that would later become central to the IM field. We conclude by assessing the importance and relevance of the journal's contributions to the literature on HQS relationships and by suggesting several directions for future research in this area, which could build on past work and leverage new phenomena.