Does the Managerial Imagination play a role in choosing the location of Multinational Companies Regional Headquarters?
Abstract
This paper proposes that the managerial imagination should be considered as a fundamental determinant of the location of a multinational company’s regional headquarters. The paper surveys the literature on the determinants of multinationals’ locational choice for regional headquarters and the role of the managerial imagination in company strategic decision making. It then develops a model, based on contingency theory, which outlines how locational choices are influenced by the managerial imagination. The model does this by incorporating it into decision making. The managerial imagination plays an important role in the decision making process by bringing congruence or harmony or alignment amongst several possibly conflicting decision variables. In this way the managerial imagination plays a central role in strategic decision making within the company and in particular in deciding the location of regional headquarters.
Keywords
Full Text:
PDFReferences
Allinson, C. W.,& Hayes, J. (1996). The Cognitive Style Index. A measure of intuition. Analysis for Organisational Research, Journal of Management Studies, 33(1), Jan 119-135.
Allinson, G. T. (1971). Essence of Decision; Exploring the Cuban Missile Crisis, Little: Boston.
Aoki, A and Tachiki, D. (1992). Overseas Operations: the Emerging Role of Regional Headquarters, Pacific Business and Industries, (1), 26-29.
Barrow, R. (1988). Some observations on the concept of imagination. In K. Egan and D. Nadaner (Eds.), Imagination and Education, Milton Keynes: Oxford University Press.
Birkinshaw, J., Braumerjeim, P., Holm, U., & terjesen, S. (2006). Why do some multinational corporations relocate their headquarters overseas?. Strategic Management Journal, (27), 681-700.
Bjerke, B., & Ramo, H. (2011). Entrepreneurial imagination: Time, timing, space and place in business action. Cheltenham: Edward Elgar Pub.
Blackburn, S. (2006). Dictionary of philosophy. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Burrell, G., & Morgan, G. (1979). Sociological paradigms and organisational analysis. London: Heinemann.
Chaharbaghi, K. (2007). The Problematic of Strategy: A way of seeing is always a way of not seeing. Management Decision, 45(3), 327-329.
Dane, E., & Pratt, M. G. (2006). Exploring intuition and its role in managerial decision-making. Academy of Management Review.
DeFrank, R. S., Konopaske, R., & Ivancevich, J. M. (2000). Executive travel stress: Perils of the Road Warrior. Academy of Management Executive, 14(2), May 1-17.
Dotty, D.H., & Glick, W. H. (1994). Typologies as a unique form of theory building: Toward improved understanding and modelling. Academy of Management Review, 19(2).
Dowling, P. J., Festing, M., & Engle, A. D. (2008). International human resource management (5th ed ). London: Thomson.
Egan, K. (1992). Imagination in teaching and learning. Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press.
Enright, M. J., Scott, E. E. (2000). The RHQ question. Business Asia, 32, 1-4.
Fisher, G. (1988). Mindsets: The role of culture and perception in international relations. Yarmount, ME: International Press Inc.
Forgeard M. J. C., & Kaufman, J. C. (2016). Who care about Imagination, Creativity and Innovation and Why? A review, Journal of Psychology of Aesthetics, Creativity and the Arts, 10 (3), 250-269.
Foster, C. (1996). A down under perception on Asia. Journal of Business Strategy, 17(3), 38-39.
Hamel, G., & Prahalad, C. K. (1991). Corporate imagination and expeditionary marketing. Harvard Business Review, July-Aug, 69(4), 81-92.
Hirsch, S, (1967). The location of industry and international competitiveness. Oxford: Clarendon Press.
Hodgetts, R. M., & Luthans, F. (1999). International management. McGraw- Hill.
Hofstede, G., & Hofstede, G. J. (2005). Culture and organisations: Software of the mind. London, England: McGraw-Hill.
Holt, J., Purcell, W. R., Gray, S. J., & Pedersen, T. (2006). Decision factors influencing MNE’s regional headquarters location selection strategies. Centre for Strategic Management and Globalisation, Copenhagen Business School, Denmark.
Kahari, P. (2014). Why do regional headquarters live and die? AIB Insights, 15(3), Dec 9-10.
Laamanen, T. (2019). Dynamic attention-based view of corporate headquarters in Multinational Corporations. Journal of Organisational Design, 8(6).
Lasserre, P., & Schutte, H. (1999) Strategies for Asia Pacific: Beyond the crisis. Macmillan: South Yarra.
Luo, Y. D., & Shenkar, O. (2006). The multinational corporation as a multilingual community: Language and organisation in a global context. Journal of International Business, 37(3), 321-339.
Markman, K. D., Klein, W. M., & Suhr, J. A. (2009). Overview. In Handbook of imagination and mental simulation (vii-xvi). NY Taylor and Francis.
Martin, R. L. (2009). The design of business: Why design thinking is the next competitive advantage. Boston, MA: Harvard Business Press.
Martin, R. L. (2010). Management by Imagination. Harvard Business Review. Retrieved from https://hbr.org/2010/01/management-by-imagination-2.
Martin, R. L. (2013). Rethinking the Decision-Factory: Knowledge workers shouldn’t be managed as if they were manual workers. A new approach can boost efficiency and productivity. Harvard Business Review, Oct 97-104.
Morgan, G. (1997). Images of organization. London, Sage Publications.
Morrison, A. J., & Roth, K. (1992). The regional solution: An alternative to Globalisation. Transnational Corporations, August, 1(2), 37-55.
Ohmae, K. (1989). Managing in a borderless world. Harvard Business Review, May-June.
Osborn, A. F. (1953). Applied imagination. New York, NY: Charles Scribner’s Sons.
Piekkari, R., Neil, P. C., & Ghauri, P. N. (2010). Regional management as a system: A longitudinal case study. Management International Review, 50(4), 513-532.
Prahalad, C. K., & Hamel, G. (1994). Strategic Management Journal, 15(52).
Robinson, K. (2001). Out of our minds. Chichester, Capstone Publications Ltd
Robinson, K. (2009). The element. London, Allen Lane.
Sadler-Smith, E. (2010). The Intuitive Mind. Chichester, John Whiley.
Savvas, M. (2016). Managerial Imagination: HRM and “The Imaginative Performer”. Sage Open, Jan-March, 1-10.
Schneider, S. C., & Barsoux, J. L. (2003). Managing across cultures. Harlow: FT Prentice-Hall.
Schoemaker, P. J. H. (1996). Scenario planning: a tool for strategic thinking. Sloan Management Review, (Winter), 25-40.
Shefy, E., & Sadler-Smith, E. (2006). Applying holistic principles in management development. Journal of Management Development, 29(4), 368-385.
Shiller, R. J. (2000). Irrational exuberance. Princeton: Princeton University Press.
Siggelkow, N., & Rivkin, J. W. (2005). Speed and search: Designing organisations for turbulence and complexity. Organization Science, 16(6), 101-123.
Spender, J. C. (2007). Management as a regulated Profession: An essay. Journal of Management Inquiry, 16(1), 32-42.
Sullivan, D. (1992). Organisation in American MNC’s: The perspective of the European regional headquarters. Management International Review, 32, 237-250.
Szulanski, G., & Amin, K. (2001). Learning to make strategy: Balancing discipline and imagination. Long Range Planning, 34, 537-556.
Tampoe, M. (1994). Knowledge workers – The new management challenge. Professional Manager, (Nov.), 12-13.
Tully, K. E. (1998). Kudos count more than cost. Corporation Location, (March/April), 14-17.
Vance, C. M., Groves, K. S., Paik, Y., & Kindler, H. (2007). Understanding and measuring linear and non-linear thinking style for enhanced management education and professional practice. Academy of Management Learning and Education, 6(2), 167-185.
Vernon, R. (1966). International investment and international trade in the product cycle. Quarterly Journal of Economics, 80, 190-207.
Viereck, G. S. (1929). What life means to Einstein. The Saturday Evening Post, Oct 26th, 117.
Warnock, M (1994). Imagination and time. Oxford, UK : Blackwell.
Weick, K. E. (1989). Theory construction as disciplined imagination. Academy of Management Review, 14 (4).
Yoost, D., & Fisher, J. (1996). Choosing regional HQ’s in Asia. International Tax Review, 7(3), 35-39.
DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.3968/12382
Refbacks
- There are currently no refbacks.
Copyright (c) 2022 Canadian Social Science
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.
Reminder
- How to do online submission to another Journal?
- If you have already registered in Journal A, then how can you submit another article to Journal B? It takes two steps to make it happen:
Submission Guidelines for Canadian Social Science
We are currently accepting submissions via email only. The registration and online submission functions have been disabled.
Please send your manuscripts to css@cscanada.net,or css@cscanada.org for consideration. We look forward to receiving your work.
Articles published in Canadian Social Science are licensed under Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 (CC-BY).
Canadian Social Science Editorial Office
Address: 1020 Bouvier Street, Suite 400, Quebec City, Quebec, G2K 0K9, Canada.
Telephone: 1-514-558 6138
Website: Http://www.cscanada.net; Http://www.cscanada.org
E-mail:caooc@hotmail.com; office@cscanada.net
Copyright © Canadian Academy of Oriental and Occidental Culture