Nowadays, the global competitive environment requires organizations not only to compete in their ability to enter new markets and achieve economies of scale but also in their ability to effectively administrate knowledge flows in an information-based economy. Additionally, in order to increase competitiveness, challenges are faced in pursuing global efficiency, local responsiveness and at the same time effective knowledge and information transfer between subsidiaries (Hill, 2011).
Different strategies can be employed to achieve competitive advantages, Multinational Enterprises (MNEs) adopting international strategies seek to exploit worldwide innovations, but they lack of flexibility and efficiency preventing them from being locally responsive. Firms like Philips, approaching a multi-domestic strategy comprise high local responsiveness but experienced difficulties in exploiting knowledge transfer and competencies of all the subsidiaries (Barlett and Beamish, 2011). Global strategy was adopted by MNEs who followed high centralization and tight control on its activities