Managing the Embedded Multinational
Mats Forsgren

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'An interesting and insightful book. It questions a lot of traditional thinking about international firms and the way they operate. Throughout the book, the reader is invited to develop a different perspective. This perspective might be called a "relationships and networks" theory of the firm. While this may sound familiar, the book goes well beyond anything I have seen in the existing literature, in terms of conceptualizing "relationships" and "networks" and in using this perspective to guide and interpret case study and survey research results.'- William G. Egelhoff, Fordham University, US'It is now well accepted in the academic literature that the multinational corporation can be usefully modelled as a network of relationships. But it is less well-known that the origins of this perspective can be traced back to work done in Uppsala, Sweden, in the 1970s and 1980s. The term "business network" was first used there, and many important ideas around power and influence have also emerged from this research centre. In this new book, three of the key members of the "Uppsala school" develop a synthesis of the more recent ideas to come out of their research on networks. By focusing on the concept of the "embedded multinational" they show how the internal networks of the multinational interact with the web of external networks each subsidiary unit has in its local market. This book provides a definitive and compelling point of view of the importance of networking thinking to the study of the multinational corporation. It is an important book, and it will be widely cited in years to come.'- Julian Birkinshaw, London Business School, UK 'Forsgren, Holm, and Johanson have been among the leaders in developing the idea of the multinational firm as a network that spans different country environments. This perspective cautions the easy prescription that a multinational firm can do everything easily, if it just has the right organizational form. Relationships matter, as do the legitimacy of the firm in the context of its foreign investments. This book provides rich case insights into these dimensions.'- Bruce Kogut, INSEAD, FranceThis book expands the business network view on managerial issues in multinational corporations. Specifically, it scrutinises the importance of a subsidiary's external and internal business network for its strategic and organizational role within the corporation.The internationalisation of firms in terms of management issues and headquarters control, the influence of subsidiaries on decisions and learning processes within multinational corporations are examined in detail. It is argued that to understand these issues, it is necessary to analyse the context of the multinational corporation in terms of the subsidiaries' external and internal business networks. The authors also explore the extent to which subsidiaries are embedded in close relationships with other business partners and the ability of headquarters to retain control if their subsidiaries are given the opportunity to influence decisions concerning strategic investments. The theoretical elements of the book are underpinned by illustrative cases from an extensive database of 20 multinational corporations.Grounding its analyses and conclusions on unique and extensive data on specific business relationships at the subsidiary level in multinational corporations, this book will be invaluable to students, researchers and lecturers focusing on management and international business.