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The disaggregation of value chains in multinational enterprises, particularly the dispersion of R&D activities to preferentially situated subsidiaries, has pushed forward the importance of research on subsidiary innovation capabilities. However, extant studies are mainly on a subsidiary level, and few consider the key individuals in the subsidiary and activities of subsidiary managers and their influence on subsidiary innovation. This study investigates how the exogenous change of gaining an R&D mandate affects subsidiary innovation via changes in subsidiary managers’ activities. A more pertinent understanding of subsidiary managers’ activities and their influence on increased innovation is helpful for subsidiary managers implementing an R&D mandate into their existing portfolio of activities and contribute to the MNE resilience during change and crises of the uncertain global order. We investigated 98 globally dispersed Swedish MNE subsidiaries. The results indicate that subsidiary managers’ activities aimed internally towards MNE actors hamper innovation, whereas the subsidiary managers’ activities towards the external MNE environment has an insignificant effect on the innovation of the subsidiary post gaining an R&D mandate. Further, the results show that the degree of the newness of the gained R&D mandate has no impact on the subsidiary managers’ innovation-enhancing activities.

Researchers claim that experiential learning approaches (e.g., gamification) are well-suited to management and entrepreneurship education. However, this research has been conducted mostly in small classroom settings. With the increases in the number of university business students, many business courses have also increased in size. The large classroom setting introduces new pedagogic concerns, in particular regarding the complexity of the teaching–learning environment, as a result of students having diverse educational backgrounds, skills, and learning styles. This article explores this concern in its investigation of the ways in which business higher education can prompt various business behaviors among students in large classrooms.By utilizing the gamification of concepts, we created an experiential learning exercise—the Strategic Business Game. Questionnaire surveys conducted with the 126 university students enrolled into two majors during the game reveal that this educational learning experience prompts the students’ causation and effectuation behaviors. In this educational learning experience, the complexity of the large classroom is seen as an advantage and gives the educators an opportunity to increase the quality of the student interaction. Furthermore, this study emphasizes the appropriateness of experiential learning through gamification on individuals’ business behaviors as revealed in large classes in management and entrepreneurship education.

Globalization of the Multinational enterprises and the disaggregation of the R&D value chain has pushed forward the importance of research on subsidiary innovation from micro processes i.e., activities of subsidiary managers. By building on MNE middle managers framework and its line of research (e.g., Dutton & Ashford, 1993; Dutton, Ashford, O'Neill, Hayes & Wierba, 1997; Delany, 2000; Dutton, Ashford, O'Neill & Lawrence, 2001; Boyett & Currie, 2004; Wooldrige, Schmid & Floyd, 2008; O'Brien, 2014; O'Brien, Scott, Andersson, Ambos, & Fu, 2019), this project put the "subsidiary managers" box under magnifier and investigates how exogenous change of R&D mandate gain affects subsidiary innovation via change in subsidiary managers activities. We test this on data collected from 98 Swedish subsidiaries dispersed globally. The results of the T-test and the multiple regression show that there is no difference in the change of subsidiary managers activities due to the degree of the newness of the gained R&D mandate. Secondly, results indicate that subsidiary managers facilities innovation through external activities with local counterparts while internal activities of subsidiary managers toward sister subsidiaries hinder the innovation. Our findings challenge the value of upward activities after gaining an R&D mandate since this direction of activity was insignificant.

As multinational enterprises increasingly disaggregate their value chains and assign functional responsibilities to foreign subsidiaries, they are increasingly focused on augmenting spatially distant activities and resources. At the same time, despite subsidiary managers operating at the “middle” of the organization and having awareness of operational and strategic contexts, they have received significant criticism for hindering the successful coordination and integration of value chain activities. This appears counterintuitive as, on the one hand, MNEs are increasingly disaggregating their value chains and, on the other, subsidiary managers act as frontline managers, at the intersection of their local context and the MNE. We examine the resource stocks of six subsidiaries and the activities of subsidiary managers locally and across global value chains. The results indicate that integration responsibilities are decentralized, as properties of subsidiary mandates, and that the subsidiary managers' connectivity activities significantly affect the strategic influence that they subsidiary can exercise locally and globally. The results also contain important information for policymakers.

Globalization of the multinational enterprises complicated the task of subsidiary’s managers. Since, all of the subsidiary managers activities influence the performance of the unit, in this study by reviewing the MNE middle management framework and acknowledging that all of the activities are important for the survival of the unit we conceptually investigate “What factors cause subsidiary managers to prioritize one activity over others when subsidiary gains a mandate? And does it matter?” To answer these questions, we elaborate on the mandate gain, its prime mover and the spectrum of change in the subsidiary portfolio. We propose a framework of activities by which we distinguish the direction and the amount of the subsidiary managers’ activities post-mandate gain. We finally suggest that when a subsidiary is competing in a hyper-competitive sector where time matters the most, it is best for the MNE to increase the autonomy of subsidiaries in that sector, so the managers can develop subsidiaries portfolio by taking various initiatives in the places they perceive best. Whereas, when MNE has a long-term plan to be located in uncompetitive industry, it is best for the MNE to insert control and coordinate the subsidiaries' portfolio.

Today indeed MNEs are relying on the knowledge of many countries around the globe. Considering this, many MNEs fine-slice their value chain even R&D activities and send them across different subsidiaries [1, 2]. Although international R&D is not a new phenomenon [3] but interestingly, there is little evidence on how R&D mandate gain of the subsidiary increases the likelihood of subsidiary innovation. In this study, we explain the strategic boundary spanning activities of subsidiary’s managers ex-post gaining an R&D mandate on strategic learning of the subsidiary to explain the effects of these activities and capability enhancements on the subsidiary’s innovation. This research contributes to the existing literature by studying the effects of subsidiary managers’ different activities on subsidiary innovation. Additionally, this study enables the HQs’ executives to foresee the innovation potential of a subsidiary and at the same time gives the subsidiary’s managers, the ability to maximize innovations by designing an appropriate strategy within their internal and external environments during the change period.