ABSTRACT
The ability to develop multinational business opportunities and adapt the multinational organization to the changing conditions across global markets calls for a balance between the dual pressures of integration by pursuing an overarching corporate intent and emergent initiatives that respond to evolving local market requirements. This chapter elaborates the interactive conceptual understanding of strategy-making in the multinational corporation and outlines a model of dynamic responsiveness characterized by structural features of strategic intent and emergence. The central planning processes at corporate headquarters should be informed by current experiences gathered from individuals operating at the local decentralized entities across different regional markets. The fast responses taken in the local markets can interact with the slow forward-looking strategic-thinking process at headquarters and vice versa. The ability to utilize local subsidiary entrepreneurial knowledge and insights in line with the strategic mandate outlined at headquarters creates a dynamic adaptive system that finds new viable ways to conduct business from decentralized experimentation guided by central intent.
