ABSTRACT
This chapter provides a decidedly incomplete but hopefully useful overview of the Multinational Enterprise (MNE) and its associated networks. It refers to IB research on MNE embeddedness that complements various perspectives on MNE networks. The chapter draws on the literature, largely pioneered by Birkinshaw, on MNE subsidiary initiative and entrepreneurship. It highlights the growing emphasis by leading scholars in the field on the interfirm networks that MNEs orchestrate. Welch and Wilkinson highlight the possible requirement for developing relationships with government bodies and for building the political embeddedness of business networks. Birkinshaw refers to the notion of subsidiary entrepreneurial initiative as the 'proactive and deliberate pursuit of a new business opportunity by a subsidiary company', designed to develop the subsidiary's value-added scope. Phene and Almeida note that innovation-seeking MNE subsidiaries' absorption and utilization of knowledge are influenced by sourcing and combinative capabilities that are applied to internal and external knowledge sources.
