This law book includes advice on corporate business structuring deals, negotiating agreements, identifying issues and solving the real problems that are likely to arise during the acquisition.
"Multinational enterprises often seem to be on a 'roller coaster' when managing their operations in transition economies, especially because of the volatile business and political environment. By combining agency and stewardship theory, this book describes the subtle equilibrium between formal control and day-to-day coordination in the Headquarters-Subsidiary (HQ-S) governance relationship. Using the Polish situation as an example, it places HQ-S governance in the context of a transitional economy while taking the cultural differences between the headquarters and subsidiary country into account. This explorative empirical study shows that the use of strategic and operational control mechanisms work as a transparent ‘platform’ on which coordination and attuning mechanisms can be build to deal with the day-to-day management challenges in a transition economy. Creating flexibility and learning capabilities at the subsidiary level, rather than maintaining a subsidiary in a state of dependence can clearly contribute to the success of international operations. However, it also reveals that there is no simple and uniform recipe for managing subsidiaries. The road from governance to performance is not a one-way street and alternative routes are available to accelerate performance. This book is a valuable resource to all directors and managers of multinational enterprises, as well as academic researchers who concern themselves with the study of multinational enterprises in transition economies."
Presents a multi-disciplinary approach to researching subsidiary dynamics and its effective management, with a focus on the role of the headquarters within the context of subsidiaries as members of a differentiated, interdependent network, and the development of subsidiary capabilities and their impact on firm performance.
This book highlights the evolution of the thinking on the multinational subsidiary over a quarter of a century, from the early concerns about the 'branch plant syndrome' to very current topics relating to the Multinational Enterprise as a differentiated corporate network and its role in innovation and entrepreneurship. It summarises and evaluates the state of the art in research on the multinational subsidiary, with particular reference to managerial and economic development dimensions. The volume presents the articles of Neil Hood (written in conjunction with other leading scholars, particularly Julian Birkinshaw and Stephen Young), along with new contributions. The book will be of major interest to students, researchers and policy makers.
This book is one of the first to specifically address the subsidiary development process - a phenomenon by which multinational company subsidiaries enhance their resources and capabilities. It shows how this process is integral to multinational corporate evolution, which is largely driven by changes in subsidiaries and their development. It also illustrates how the recent trend towards greater international dispersal of value-adding activities has impacted on this process and on multinational evolution as a whole.
Reflecting on the evolving organisation of multinational enterprises (MNEs) and their growing presence in international business, this book focuses on value creation by subsidiaries in transition economies, and uses Poland as an example. Drawing on internalisation and business network theory, the author analyses the role of the subsidiary with the aim of explaining the mechanisms of subsidiary functional specialisation and its operationalisation. The book presents an innovative model illustrating the determinants of the functional responsibilities of subsidiaries, whilst providing an empirical analysis of foreign subsidiaries in Poland. Addressing a vital topic in international business and management studies, this Palgrave Pivot will be useful for researchers, students and practitioners.
This work deals with the liability of the holding company for the debts of its insolvent subsidiaries. In analyzing the current position under English law, the work challenges as outmoded and inadequate the virtual dogma that a holding company is not answerable for the debts of its insolvent subsidiaries. The study identifies four separate and distinct types of behavioural practices within corporate groups which may prejudice the interests of external creditors or otherwise constitute an abuse of the corporate form; the subservient subsidiary situation; the inadequately financed subsidiary situation; the integrated economic enterprise situation; and the group persona situation. After weighing the various arguments for and against a change in the law and concluding that reform is called for, the study proceeds to submit some radical proposals for reform. The basic thrust of the reform proposals is that in a number of well-defined situations entity law should give way to an enterprise analysis and holding company liability should be imposed for the debts of insolvent subsidiaries.
This book, first published in 1986, is concerned with the changing world environment for multinational business and the relationships between multinational parent companies and their subsidiaries which will be necessary to meet the challenges that are being faced. The study argues that key changes to the environment are: the revolution in manufacturing which has permitted cheap production in one location of complicated products for a world market; ‘world product mandating’, whereby all a company’s country subsidiaries produce different product lines for the world market; pressure and incentives from host governments for technology transfer in their favour and for research and development facilities within their territory; the growth of highly efficient international trading and distribution intermediaries; and the complications of increased ‘barter’ trade arising from international debt problems and currency shortages. All this means that the management of multinational subsidiaries has to change. This book reviews the challenges and shows a way forward.
Most books on business strategy approach the subject from a corporate perspective, covering topics such as the vision for the business, the marketplace, competition and differentiation. However, the reality is that most managers work in sub-units or subsidiaries of the business and they are not involved in corporate strategy formulation. Their strategic concerns are with the positioning and future trajectory of their own units within the complex internal ecosystem in which they exist. If these units are to survive and grow, the middle managers responsible for them must plan their future, maximise their value-add and compete for resources within the internal market of their corporations. Such internal markets are becoming increasingly volatile due to general economic conditions but also given the questioning of globalisation and increasing corporate concerns about the frailties of international supply chains as brought into sharp focus by the COVID-19 crisis and the war in Ukraine. This book provides practical perspectives for these business unit managers and a step-by-step toolkit that can be used by management teams to develop a successful subsidiary strategy that acknowledges these challenges while maximising their contribution to corporate objectives. It is based on the author’s 30 years of experience as an executive in a complex multinational (IBM) organisation, supplemented by academic study at Master’s and PhD levels. The material covered has been verified through workshops over a 3-year period with the senior leadership teams of over 30 multinational subsidiaries operating from Ireland.