The paper firstly describes how, using the two laws of 'increasing firm size' and 'uneven development', Hymer characterises the multinational corporation (MNC) as a geographically segmented hierarchy. In this structure HQs in a limited number of core countries exercise authoritarian control over...

This paper views the Multinational Enterprise (MNE) as a differentiated learning network with foreign subunits playing a critical role in managing knowledge. Drawing on a sample of 92 subsidiaries operating in Greece, it empirically tests the relationship between sources of technology acquired...

This paper analyses the degree of technology decentralization in four European countries, i.e. Belgium, Greece, Portugal and United Kingdom using a sample of 145 MNE subsidiaries. The research focuses in particular on the sources of technology used by subsidiaries and on the characteristics and...

The paper deals with the positioning of dispersed technology acquisition and application in heterarchical MNEs. It suggests that as MNEs acknowledge the need to respond to technological and market heterogeneity, this is best done through creative subsidiaries that access and apply localised...