Subsidiary autonomy in transition economies: Italian SMEs in Central and Eastern European countries

This paper aims at shedding new light on the variables that indicate the level of autonomy of subsidiaries of internationalizing companies. Specifically, we examine subsidiaries located in the transition economies of Central and Eastern European Countries (CEECs). We identified a sample of 72 subsidiaries of micro, small and medium-sized Italian companies, and we assessed the impact of three variables on the subsidiary’s autonomy: the size; the strategic aim in the local market (market seeking or cost reduction); and the degree of economic development of the local country. Our results suggest that subsidiary's autonomy reflects local country characteristics, but not the economic development. Our findings also show that subsidiaries looking for penetrating the local market are generally more autonomous than the ones pursuing cost-cutting strategies.