Interoffice shared perceptions as a control method in an integrated multinational corporation (MNC)

The decisions regarding when to integrate multinational activities and when to adapt to local market conditions have been central theoretical concepts within the international business literature (e.g. Fayerweather, 1969; Prahalad and Doz, 1987; Bartlett and Ghoshal, 1989). This dissertation intends to further develop these concepts both theoretically and empirically by examining a series of factors that ultimately influence the degree to which offices in a multinational corporation share perceptions regarding the importance of global integration and local responsiveness (see also Murtha, Lenway and Bagozzi, 1998).; To accomplish the above objectives, this dissertation examines a sample of 46 offices from a multinational corporation with operations in the Americas, Europe and Asia. Data for testing this dissertation's hypotheses was obtained from three sources: questionnaires completed by 477 employees of the study company, e-mail communication logs detailing interoffice communication, and secondary data sources such as printed company directories and external media coverage.; In summary of the dissertation's results, partial support was obtained for the dissertation's main hypothesis that interoffice communication influences interoffice shared perceptions. Hypothesized relationships predicting that office beliefs regarding career opportunities from global integration would be higher when offices are more structurally interdependent and lower when offices are more locally embedded were also supported. Moreover, interoffice communication was found to be positively influenced by office beliefs in career opportunities from global integration and negatively influenced by the degree to which offices were locally embedded. In addition to the hypothesized relationships, office size was found to be a highly significant control variable at all stages of the dissertation model. Complementing this dissertation's theoretical contribution, which stems from the above hypotheses results, the dissertation also contributes in the area of research methods by: (1) measuring shared perceptions at the activity level instead of the more commonly-used company mission level, and (2) utilizing e-mail communication data in order to examine interoffice communication networks in an international setting.