IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/hhs/eijswp/0141.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

THE ROLE AND FUNCTION OF EUROPEAN REGIONAL HEADQUARTERS IN JAPANESE MNCs

Author

Listed:
  • Mori, Tatsuo

    (Hirosaki University)

Abstract

Multinational Corporations (MNCs) that establish Regional Headquarters (RHQ) expect the RHQs to become a management centre in the region. In this paper, the author focuses on three expected roles, that of a decision-maker, a coordinator, and as a transferor of knowledge on local operations and markets to the MNC. An interview survey examines the existence and roles of RHQs, defines minimal conditions for being defined as a RHQ, and determines seven such companies to be RHQs. All seven RHQs can be described as coordinators. Some RHQs coordinate their subsidiaries by controlling the flow of parts/products. Other RHQs assign their managers two titles or positions for coordinating subsidiaries. In other words, one manager has two functions: managing the region and a local company at the same time. From the point of the knowledge-based management, however, RHQs do not seem to work well. Though they are expected to transfer local knowledge to headquarters and other subsidiaries in MNCs, they often fail to systematically do so. To sum up, the author claims that the function and role of RHQs as knowledge based management centres needs to be bolstered.

Suggested Citation

  • Mori, Tatsuo, 2002. "THE ROLE AND FUNCTION OF EUROPEAN REGIONAL HEADQUARTERS IN JAPANESE MNCs," EIJS Working Paper Series 141, Stockholm School of Economics, The European Institute of Japanese Studies.
    • Handle: RePEc:hhs:eijswp:0141
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://swopec.hhs.se/eijswp/papers/eijswp0141.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. J H Dunning & G Norman, 1983. "The Theory of the Multinational Enterprise: An Application to Multinational Office Location," Environment and Planning A, , vol. 15(5), pages 675-692, May.
    2. Lehrer, Mark & Asakawa, Kazuhiro, 1999. "Unbundling European operations: regional management and corporate flexibility in American and Japanese MNCS," Journal of World Business, Elsevier, vol. 34(3), pages 267-286, October.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Bruno Amann & Jacques Jaussaud & Johannes Schaaper, 2020. "The bridging role of regional headquarters.Multinational companies in theAsia-Pacific region," Post-Print hal-03282204, HAL.
    2. Bruno Amann & Jacques Jaussaud & Johannes Schaaper, 2014. "Clusters and Regional Management Structures by Western MNCs in Asia: Overcoming the Distance Challenge," Management International Review, Springer, vol. 54(6), pages 879-906, December.
    3. Andreas G. M. NACHBAGAUER, 2016. "Stimulating Sustainability in Multinational Companies: the Significance of Regional Headquarters," Management Dynamics in the Knowledge Economy, College of Management, National University of Political Studies and Public Administration, vol. 4(2), pages 215-240, June.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Kawai, Norifumi & Chung, Chul, 2019. "Expatriate utilization, subsidiary knowledge creation and performance: The moderating role of subsidiary strategic context," Journal of World Business, Elsevier, vol. 54(1), pages 24-36.
    2. Rudolf R. Sinkovics & Eva A. Alfoldi, 2012. "Progressive Focusing and Trustworthiness in Qualitative Research," Management International Review, Springer, vol. 52(6), pages 817-845, December.
    3. René Belderbos & Helen S. Du & Anthony Goerzen, 2017. "Global Cities, Connectivity, and the Location Choice of MNC Regional Headquarters," Journal of Management Studies, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 54(8), pages 1271-1302, December.
    4. Peter J. Taylor & Ben Derudder & James Faulconbridge & Michael Hoyler & Pengfei Ni, 2014. "Advanced Producer Service Firms as Strategic Networks, Global Cities as Strategic Places," Economic Geography, Clark University, vol. 90(3), pages 267-291, July.
    5. Bruno Amann & Jacques Jaussaud & Johannes Schaaper, 2020. "The bridging role of regional headquarters.Multinational companies in theAsia-Pacific region," Post-Print hal-03282204, HAL.
    6. Bruno Amann & Jacques Jaussaud & Johannes Schaaper, 2014. "Clusters and Regional Management Structures by Western MNCs in Asia: Overcoming the Distance Challenge," Management International Review, Springer, vol. 54(6), pages 879-906, December.
    7. Ricart, Joan E. & Enright, Michael J. & Ghemawat, Pankaj & Khanna, Tarun & Hart, Stuart L., 2003. "New frontiers in international strategy," IESE Research Papers D/532, IESE Business School.
    8. Asakawa, Kazuhiro & Lehrer, Mark, 2003. "Managing local knowledge assets globally: the role of regional innovation relays," Journal of World Business, Elsevier, vol. 38(1), pages 31-42, February.
    9. Xufei Ma & Andrew Delios & Shu Yu, 2020. "Innovation in MNC’S strategy and structure: the (re) emergence of host country headquarters in large emerging markets," Asia Pacific Journal of Management, Springer, vol. 37(3), pages 609-632, September.
    10. Perttu Kähäri & Iiris Saittakari & Rebecca Piekkari & Wilhelm Barner-Rasmussen, 2017. "Explaining Mandate Loss of Regional Headquarters: The Difference between Full and Partial Loss," Journal of Management Studies, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 54(8), pages 1206-1240, December.
    11. Mats Bergman & Per Johansson, 2011. "Foreign ownership and investment: do firms locate investments close to the headquarter?," Review of World Economics (Weltwirtschaftliches Archiv), Springer;Institut für Weltwirtschaft (Kiel Institute for the World Economy), vol. 147(4), pages 621-642, November.
    12. Virginia A. Gibson & Colin M. Lizieri, 2001. "Friction and Inertia: Business Change, Corporate Real Estate Portfolios and the U.K. Office Market," Journal of Real Estate Research, American Real Estate Society, vol. 22(1/2), pages 59-80.
    13. Rebecca Piekkari & Phillip C. Nell & Pervez N. Ghauri, 2010. "Regional Management as a System," Management International Review, Springer, vol. 50(4), pages 513-532, August.
    14. Andreas G. M. NACHBAGAUER, 2016. "Stimulating Sustainability in Multinational Companies: the Significance of Regional Headquarters," Management Dynamics in the Knowledge Economy, College of Management, National University of Political Studies and Public Administration, vol. 4(2), pages 215-240, June.
    15. Tomi Laamanen, 2019. "Dynamic attention-based view of corporate headquarters in MNCs," Journal of Organization Design, Springer;Organizational Design Community, vol. 8(1), pages 1-15, December.
    16. Chakravarty, Dwarka & Hsieh, Ying-Ying & Schotter, Andreas P.J. & Beamish, Paul W., 2017. "Multinational enterprise regional management centres: Characteristics and performance," Journal of World Business, Elsevier, vol. 52(2), pages 296-311.
    17. Verbeke, Alain & Kano, Liena, 2016. "An internalization theory perspective on the global and regional strategies of multinational enterprises," Journal of World Business, Elsevier, vol. 51(1), pages 83-92.
    18. Villar, Cristina & Dasí, Àngels & Botella-Andreu, Ana, 2018. "Subsidiary-specific advantages for inter-regional expansion: The role of intermediate units," International Business Review, Elsevier, vol. 27(2), pages 328-338.
    19. Henk Post & Celeste Wilderom & Sytse Douma, 1998. "Internationalization of Dutch accounting firms," European Accounting Review, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 7(4), pages 697-707.
    20. Dirk Ulrich Gilbert & Patrick Heinecke, 2014. "Success Factors of Regional Strategies for Multinational Corporations: Exploring the Appropriate Degree of Regional Management Autonomy and Regional Product/Service Adaptation," Management International Review, Springer, vol. 54(5), pages 615-651, October.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    regional headquarters; Japanese MNCs; headquarters-like function; coordinator; knowledge flow;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • F23 - International Economics - - International Factor Movements and International Business - - - Multinational Firms; International Business

    NEP fields

    This paper has been announced in the following NEP Reports:

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:hhs:eijswp:0141. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Nanhee Lee (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/eihhsse.html .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.