ABSTRACT
In recent years, multinational corporations (MNCs) have increasingly been conceived as multicentered organizational forms, with foreign subsidiaries playing different roles within a larger network structure. By adopting an internally differentiated form, rather than insisting on identical roles for each foreign subsidiary, MNCs can tap the distinctive capabilities of each subsidiary and optimize their worldwide operations. Such MNCs are also better positioned to benefit from network flexibility, as they can shift production and sourcing among subsidiaries as various external conditions – competitive, financial, or regulatory – change. The chapters in this volume, many of which explicitly refer to MNCs as “networks,” are testimony to the growing popularity of understanding MNCs in this way.
