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Reconceptualising Hierarchies: The Disaggregation and Dispersion of Headquarters in Multinational Corporations
Author(s) -
Nell Phillip C.,
Kappen Philip,
Laamanen Tomi
Publication year - 2017
Publication title -
journal of management studies
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 4.398
H-Index - 184
eISSN - 1467-6486
pISSN - 0022-2380
DOI - 10.1111/joms.12313
Subject(s) - conceptualization , multinational corporation , unit (ring theory) , business , economic geography , sociology , public relations , regional science , industrial organization , political science , economics , computer science , finance , mathematics , mathematics education , artificial intelligence
In this paper, we provide an introduction to the Special Issue entitled ‘Divide and Rule? The Emergence and Implications of Increasingly Disaggregated and Dispersed Headquarters Activities in Contemporary Firms’. The purpose is two‐fold. First, we propose a conceptualization of headquarters activities as a dynamic system in which activities can be distributed organizationally and spatially. We explicitly break with the dominant view of the prior research on ‘the headquarters’ as a single, identifiable unit in one specific location. Second, building on the manuscripts accepted for publication in this Special Issue, we outline research implications and put forward an agenda for research on the emergence and continuous management of disaggregated and dispersed headquarters systems.