Management and Global Business Manager

1. Frank is director of technology in an MNE in which most of the R&D activities are performed in the parent company’s home country, but then, foreign subsidiaries are responsible for introducing the resulting innovations to their local customers. The innovation process adopted by Frank’s MNE is:
a. globally linked.
b. local-for-local.
c. center-for-global.
d. locally leveraged. C

2. With responsibility for his company’s largely centralized R&D activities, Frank worries that the center may not understand local market needs, while the subsidiaries may not be committed to innovations developed at the center. To respond to these concerns, Frank’s priority should be to:
a. adopt a single point of contact between headquarters and the subsidiaries to focus the flow of information.
b. ensure that several key people in the foreign subsidiaries are linked to individuals at the headquarters who can represent and defend their views.
c. carefully select the people he interacts with in the subsidiaries in order to reduce conflicting perspectives regarding innovation management.
d. listen to the different national perspectives and priorities, but minimize differences in views from multiple subsidiaries’ input.
B

3. Which of the following does not enhance the efficiency of a local-for-local innovation process?
a. Dispersing assets and resources to the subsidiaries and delegating decision-making authority regarding innovations to them.
b. Assigning competent headquarter managers to lead development projects within a subsidiary.
c. Improving linkages between headquarters and subsidiaries through the use of expatriates.
d. Promoting cross-functional integration at the subsidiary level.

B

4. Local-for-Local innovative processes can be enhanced through integrating subsidiary functions across different levels. At which level are the control and conflict resolution tasks best concentrated?
a. At the project level (called “article team” at