Learning in MNCs: How subsidiary managers do (and do not) create global solutions

It is widely acknowledged in international business (IB) that the task of subsidiaries in multinational corporation (MNC) learning is to adapt, create and diffuse new knowledge. Departing from the common focus on the subsidiary's assigned mandate, this study takes a problemistic search perspective to explore subsidiary managers' actions in detail. A qualitative study was conducted into 38 solution finding processes employed in four subsidiaries. The paper's main contribution is a framework of subsidiary managers' roles in MNC learning, depicting how the framing of the problem influences knowledge search and solution finding activities, and how different activities result in learning at local and global levels. Further implications for MNC knowledge and organizational learning, the management of interdependencies and integration, and for economic geography literatures are discussed.