Market Orientation, Embeddedness and the Autonomy and Performance of Multinational Subsidiaries in an Emerging Economy

• Main Authors: LI, Xiaoying, LIU, Xiaming, THOMAS, Howard
• Format: text
• Language: English
• Published: Institutional Knowledge at Singapore Management University 2013
• Subjects: China; Multinational subsidiaries; Market orientation; Embeddedness; Specialized resource; International Business; Strategic Management Policy
• Online Access: https://ink.library.smu.edu.sg/lkcsb_research/3822; https://ink.library.smu.edu.sg/context/lkcsb_research/article/4821/viewcontent/MarketOrientationEmbedAutomomyMNSub_2013.pdf
• Institution: Singapore Management University

This paper develops a conceptual framework for market orientation, embeddedness, autonomy and performance of multinational subsidiaries in an emerging economy. We argue that internal and external embeddedness has different performance implications for export- and local market-oriented multinational subsidiaries. Our results, based on a sample of 233 multinational subsidiaries from China, indicate that while external embeddedness has a positive impact on specialized resources of both types of subsidiary, such resources only positively affect the performance of local market-oriented subsidiaries. By contrast, internal embeddedness has a negative impact on specialized resources of both types of subsidiary. Managerial and policy implications are discussed.