IMPLEMENTING GLOBAL STRATEGY - CHARACTERISTICS OF GLOBAL SUBSIDIARY MANDATES

Implementing a global strategy requires coordinating subsidiary activities across country locations. The assumption often made is that such coordination must be managed at headquarters. However, an alternate approach is decentralized-centralized responsibilities in which different subsidiaries within the multi-national are given worldwide mandates to manage specific products or product lines. This study identifies subsidiary characteristics that are associated with receiving a global mandate by examining foreign subsidiaries located in France, Germany, Japan, U.K., U.S., and Canada.