Differentiate subsidiaries contributions in a multinational corporation’s innovation strategy
The strengthening of subsidiaries’ role in Multinational Corporations’ (MNC) innovation strategy has been underlined. Based on an extension of the analytical framework developed by Bartlett and Ghoshal (1989) and a case study of a representative MNC, we suggest four differentiated ideal types of subsidiary contributions and the type of innovation they are more prone to develop. Besides “historic big” and “implementer” we highlight two specific contributions of “accelerators” and “high potential” subsidiaries that leverage their capabilities and environment leading to innovation potentially deployed afterwards among the subsidiaries.