This paper examines the relationship between entrepreneurship, strategy development and the generation of strategic initiatives at the subsidiary level. Propositions are tested using data generated from surveying the total population of Irish subsidiaries of foreign MNCs, supported by interviews with subsidiary senior managers and other key informants.
We show that while entrepreneurial subsidiaries generate initiatives even when headquarters imposes strategic constraints - that engaging in formal strategy development activities - can further unlock the potential of entrepreneurial subsidiaries to generate initiatives. Overall our findings confirm that subsidiaries actively engage in strategy development and demonstrate that entrepreneurial subsidiaries which develop formal strategies are better at generating initiatives.