Organizational identity, organizational capabilities, and the evolution of the multinational corporation : JTech's transmission systems business in the US

Thesis (Ph. D.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Sloan School of Management, 2007.

Bibliographic Details
Main Author: Voisey, Christopher John
Other Authors: D. Eleanor Westney.
Format: Thesis
Language:eng
Published: Massachusetts Institute of Technology 2008
Subjects:
Online Access:http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/40888
_version_ 1811074460831186944
author Voisey, Christopher John
author2 D. Eleanor Westney.
author_facet D. Eleanor Westney.
Voisey, Christopher John
author_sort Voisey, Christopher John
collection MIT
description Thesis (Ph. D.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Sloan School of Management, 2007.
first_indexed 2024-09-23T09:49:48Z
format Thesis
id mit-1721.1/40888
institution Massachusetts Institute of Technology
language eng
last_indexed 2024-09-23T09:49:48Z
publishDate 2008
publisher Massachusetts Institute of Technology
record_format dspace
spelling mit-1721.1/408882022-01-13T07:54:52Z Organizational identity, organizational capabilities, and the evolution of the multinational corporation : JTech's transmission systems business in the US Voisey, Christopher John D. Eleanor Westney. Sloan School of Management. Sloan School of Management Sloan School of Management. Thesis (Ph. D.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Sloan School of Management, 2007. "June 2007." Includes bibliographical references (v. 2, leaves 259-267). When a multinational corporation (MNC) internationalizes by establishing a new subsidiary, the subsidiary's evolution depends upon its acceptance within its host country environment, by its home country headquarters, by other subsidiaries, and by all other stakeholders, including employees, suppliers, customers, complementary innovators, product market critics and analysts. To be accepted, the subsidiary organization has to have a legitimate form with some combination of properties - such as activities, features, and boundaries - that make it recognizable and understandable as a meaningful social unit. In short, as a social object, the subsidiary has to have an identity that conforms to a recognized and accepted type, so that it is evaluated positively as belonging to a legitimate category of organizations. Yet, if value creation simultaneously depends upon a subsidiary developing organizational capabilities, how does its identity shape the development of those capabilities? How do the capabilities in turn alter the subsidiary's identity? How does the identity-capability relationship influence the subsidiary's strategy, and how do the organizational structures put in place to cope with these changes affect the organization's identity and legitimacy? I explore these issues by analyzing the case of the evolution of a US subsidiary of a Japanese high technology MNC, which had responsibility for activities related to the development and sale of transmission equipment into the US, over a fifteen year period ending in 2000. I find that organizational members constructed an identity for their organization through which they enacted their environment, organizational capabilities, strategy, and structure. (cont.) These, in turn, recursively interacted with the organizational identity in complex ways, either reinforcing the salient organizational identity or stressing it, resulting in identity work through which organizational members sought to reconstruct a new and legitimate organizational identity. Understanding the identity of a subsidiary is necessary in efforts to improve the effectiveness of managing across borders. As a corollary, management practices designed to improve collaboration, such as facilitating the transfer of more complex information, or that aim to deepen understanding among collaborating units of an MNC, such as increasing personnel transfers, may actually undermine cross-border knowledge development through their negative effect on organizational identity. by Christopher J. Voisey. Ph.D. 2008-03-27T18:19:30Z 2008-03-27T18:19:30Z 2007 Thesis http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/40888 196577882 eng M.I.T. theses are protected by copyright. They may be viewed from this source for any purpose, but reproduction or distribution in any format is prohibited without written permission. See provided URL for inquiries about permission. http://dspace.mit.edu/handle/1721.1/7582 2 v. (267 leaves ) application/pdf Massachusetts Institute of Technology
spellingShingle Sloan School of Management.
Voisey, Christopher John
Organizational identity, organizational capabilities, and the evolution of the multinational corporation : JTech's transmission systems business in the US
title Organizational identity, organizational capabilities, and the evolution of the multinational corporation : JTech's transmission systems business in the US
title_full Organizational identity, organizational capabilities, and the evolution of the multinational corporation : JTech's transmission systems business in the US
title_fullStr Organizational identity, organizational capabilities, and the evolution of the multinational corporation : JTech's transmission systems business in the US
title_full_unstemmed Organizational identity, organizational capabilities, and the evolution of the multinational corporation : JTech's transmission systems business in the US
title_short Organizational identity, organizational capabilities, and the evolution of the multinational corporation : JTech's transmission systems business in the US
title_sort organizational identity organizational capabilities and the evolution of the multinational corporation jtech s transmission systems business in the us
topic Sloan School of Management.
url http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/40888
work_keys_str_mv AT voiseychristopherjohn organizationalidentityorganizationalcapabilitiesandtheevolutionofthemultinationalcorporationjtechstransmissionsystemsbusinessintheus