Technological Growth in the MNC : A Longitudinal Study of the Role of Advanced Foreign Subsidiaries

This thesis emphasizes the technological evolution of technologically advanced foreign subsidiaries of multinational corporations, in order to examine specific and related research questions as to what is the nature of the advanced modern MNC regarding technological growth. In particular, evolutionary paths and potential limits to the development of technological capabilities at the level of individual foreign subsidiaries, and to what extent these subsidiaries serve as significant sources of technological capabilities for other actors in the multinational group are highlighted. More specific, longitudinal patterns and pace in the emergence and diffusion of new technological capabilities by advanced foreign subsidiaries are studied. Event history analysis of the complete U.S. patenting activity of 23 Swedish multinationals over the 1893-1990 time period reveals accelerated emergence of new technological capabilities by advanced foreign subsidiaries, but at moderate hazard rates. The results also show that there are substantially different probabilities of introducing new technological capabilities depending on the type of entry mode and that acquired subsidiaries are much more important than greenfield subsidiaries as growth engines for the technological renewal of the MNC. Moreover, the findings suggest the presence of an increased pace in reverse diffusion, hence the later into the time period a technological capability emerges in an advanced foreign subsidiary, the faster it is diffused to headquarters. The results also demonstrate that the type of subsidiary has a significant influence on diffusion patterns of new technological capabilities and thus how capabilities are leveraged throughout the MNC network. To conclude, a balanced view on the creative capabilities of the MNC seems to be called for. The modern MNC does have and display many of the features of the modern MNC as identified in previous literature, but the expectations traditionally and generally expressed in the literature may have been an overstatement of actual conditions and developments. The ultimate technological limits of advanced foreign subsidiaries seem far from reached, and the final word on the ultimate importance of these subsidiaries as significant sources of new technological capabilities for other actors in the MNC is still to be spoken