What we talk about when we talk about "global mindset": managerial cognition in multinational corporations

Recent developments in the global economy and in multinational corporations have placed significant emphasis on the cognitive orientations of managers, giving rise to a number of concepts such as “global mindset” that are presumed to be associated with the effective management of multinational corporations (MNCs). This paper reviews the literature on global mindset and clarifies some of the conceptual confusion surrounding the construct. We identify common themes across writers, suggesting that the majority of studies fall into one of three research perspectives: cultural, strategic, and multidimensional. We also identify two constructs from the social sciences that underlie the perspectives found in the literature: cosmopolitanism and cognitive complexity and use these two constructs to develop an integrative theoretical framework of global mindset. We then provide a critical assessment of the field of global mindset and suggest directions for future theoretical and empirical research

Subsidiary size and the level of subsidiary autonomy in multinational corporations: a quadratic model investigation of Australian subsidiaries

We investigate the relationship between subsidiary size and subsidiary autonomy in multinational corporations (MNCs) and conclude that a quadratic inverted U-shaped model is the best fit to our data. Founding our arguments in resource dependence theory, we propose that, while the subsidiary is relatively small, increasing subsidiary size will correlate with increasing resources in the subsidiary and a consequent increase in subsidiary autonomy. This positive linear relationship persists until an inflection point is reached and subsidiary autonomy begins to decline. We argue that this is due to increasing subsidiary size bringing increasing coordination complexity, a need for greater inputs of managerial experience and expertise, and growing interdependence between the subsidiary and the rest of the corporation. Employing a sample of 313 Australian subsidiaries of mostly US, UK, European and Japanese MNCs, we use a three-step hierarchical regression to investigate controls only, linear and quadratic effects of subsidiary size on subsidiary autonomy. The quadratic inverted-U model supports and extends Hedlund's (1981) proposition. A post hoc investigation suggested that there might be value in exploring a sinusoidal relationship between size and autonomy. Journal of International Business Studies (2007) 38, 787–801. doi:10.1057/palgrave.jibs.8400294

Learning to internationalise: the pace and success of foreign acquisitions

We argue that firms engaged in international acquisitions can benefit from foreign acquisition, domestic acquisition, and international joint venture experiences, but that their learning process is prone to biases. Only once companies learn what part of their knowledge about national cultures and entry modes can successfully be applied to new settings will they become truly successful abroad, in terms of both the rate and the frequency of their foreign acquisitions. The hypotheses were tested using negative binomial regression and hazard rate models on data on 1038 foreign acquisitions of 25 firms over a period of more than three decades