A micro-political perspective on subsidiary initiative-taking: Evidence from German-owned subsidiaries in France

SummaryAs classical micro-political studies have shown, management behavior is not only constrained or enabled by certain cultural, structural and institutional patterns, but is shaped by individual interests and actor rationales. Based on the assumption that actors are neither the organs of given structures nor acting fully autonomously, the paper highlights how key foreign subsidiary managers interpret and integrate individual, socio-political, organizational as well as some home and host country factors into distinct subsidiary initiatives, which they then try to accomplish in negotiations with the headquarters. Empirically the paper builds on three explorative case studies undertaken in German-owned subsidiaries in France, covering all main forms of subsidiary initiatives (local, global and MNC internal subsidiary initiatives).