The deployment of innovation among subsidiaries within a multinational company
Subsidiaries of a multinational company need to balance local adaptation and global integration. To analyze this, we propose the concept of innovation deployment among subsidiaries which we define as the successive launches of an innovation by subsidiaries located in different contexts, thus requiring adapting the innovation. Based on a longitudinal analysis of five deployments of innovations in a multinational company, we highlight four critical factors that we connect to mechanisms of building and sharing knowledge. Finally we discuss the theoretical model of knowledge transfer suggested by Tallmann Chacar (2011) and specify thus the conditions of its implementation.