Studies On The Influence Of MNC Subsidiary's Reverse Transfer Of Innovation On Its Status Accumulation And Innovative Performance And Its Key Driving Factors

As a specific type of corporations,the characteristics of cross-culture,cross-institution and transnational or trans-regional contribute to the distinctiveness of MNC,s innovation system and knowledge management system.Earlier Literature suggested that the roles of subsidiaries overseas were simply performers of MNC in host countries,which take resources from their parent companies and meanwhile undertake the functions endowed by parent corporations.However,with multinational corporations developed globally and the growing understanding of international operations of MNC,the findings of recently studies reveal initiatives of subsidiaries of MNC in their development,during which subsidiaries become important players of more innovative programs and increasingly transfer innovations reversely to parent corporations.Therefore,an increasing number of researchers focus on reverse transfer of innovation within MNC.The relative status of subsidiaries within the system of MNC depends on the network activities and knowledge transfer in the operation practice of MNC.However,knowledge transfer could result in loss of advantage of subsidiaries in technology and management,which thereupon has adverse impact on subsidiaries.To overcome the management dilemma,subsidiaries need a mechanism to eliminate negative effect and through the mechanism subsidiaries can transfer the innovation reversely to parent corporations to improve their status within MNC system and meanwhile promote their innovation performance.Nevertheless,there are no reasonable explanations in extant literature which could demonstrate the relationship between reverse transfer of innovation and status accumulation,innovation performance of subsidiaries,and the mechanism remains unclear.It is further proposed by the study that there are certain factors which would influence the function of the mechanism.Parent corporations empower the subsidiaries to a limit extent within MNC,which is allocation of limited resources in essence.What effects should be expected if subsidiaries within the MNC system compete with each other for resources from parent companies?What the role of parent company play in reverse transfer of innovation,when subsidiaries in MNC posses important resources and irreplaceable?Moreover,are there any other important factors which would have impact on reverse transfer of innovation?To fill up the research gap,based on internalization theory,international entrepreneurship theory and knowledge-based view theory and with empirical analysis,the study explores the mechanism,through which reverse transfer of innovation effects status accumulation and innovative performance of subsidiaries.The thesis explores the research questions from the following perspectives:Firstly,the reverse transfer of innovation from subsidiaries overseas of MNC to parent companies is the core explanatory variable of the study,which examines the effects of reverse transfer of innovation on status accumulation and innovative performance of foreign subsidiaries.Secondly,from the perspective of external environment characteristics,the study selects the specific driving factors of reverse transfer of innovation and proposes that location-bounded advantage has positive effect on reverse transfer of innovation.Moreover,the study further divides the incentives from parent companies into performance-oriented incentive and promotion-oriented incentive on the basis of different incentive orientations.Thirdly,the study analyzes the mechanism through which subsidiaries acquire status accumulation and promote their innovative performance.The study selects dependence of parent companies to their subsidiaries and subsidiaries' competence within MNC as moderators to discuss the moderating effects.The study applies multiple respondents as one of the research methods,and two types of questionnaires against middle and higher level of managers were designed,with 111 subsidiaries of MNCs were surveyed.The study examines the reliability and validity of the questionnaires and applies hierarchical regression analysis to test the research structure and hypothesizes.Through theoretical analysis and empirical research,the findings support the study proposals as following:Firstly,performance-oriented incentives of parent companies improve reverse transfer of innovation from subsidiaries.Secondly,location-bounded advantage encourages reverse transfer of innovation.Thirdly,reverse transfer of innovation improve the status accumulation of subsidiary.Fourthly,reverse transfer of innovation promote innovative performance of subsidiaries.Fifthly,dependence of parent companies on subsidiaries positive affects the relationship between reverse transfer of innovation and subsidiaries'innovative performance.Sixthly,subsidiaries'competence within MNC has a negative effect on the relationship between reverse transfer of innovation and subsidiaries' innovative performance.Seventhly,subsidiaries' competence negatively affects the relationship between reverse transfer of innovation and innovative performance of subsidiaries.Meanwhile,there are two hypotheses which have no empirical support.One is that promotion-oriented incentives of parent companies facilitate foreign subsidiaries' reverse transfer of innovation.The other is that dependence of parent companies on subsidiaries positive affects the relationship between reverse transfer of innovation and subsidiaries' status accumulation.The theoretical and practical significance of empirical findings was suggested at the end of the thesis with shortcomings and further directions pointed out.