Previous work has generally viewed multinational companies as a group of monolithic units that can be characterized in a uniform way (i.e., either integrated or responsive). Environmental and industrial factors that facilitate global integration of these headquarters-subsidiaries relationships are extensively studied. Our research, in contrast, decomposes firms into their business processes. Bridging literature on business process orientation, we hypothesize that (1) global integration and (2) cross-functional integration of business functions that perform activities of the processes (i.e., intra-company factors) and (3) customers and (4) suppliers that pursue the processes along value chains (i.e., intercompany factors) significantly affect global integration of similar business processes among geographically dispersed subsidiaries. A large-scale sample of multinational companies, headquartered in North America, Europe, and Asia should provide evidence.
Our current understanding of MNC organization has traditionally focused on the hierarchical interdependence between headquarters and subsidiaries. Yet, the pressure caused by globalizing markets and the rise of emerging market MNCs has forced all MNCs to escalate their search for ways to add value and to reduce costs. This effort has pushed firms to go beyond headquarter subsidiary integration, aligning multiple business functions and their typically interdependent activities through cross-functional integration along business processes. In this paper, we argue that the horizontal process organization is a distinct key component of any MNC's organizational structure, requiring equal consideration beyond the hierarchical structural organization perspective established in the integration responsiveness (IR) framework used to create typologies of MNCs' international strategy and structure (Bartlett and Ghoshal, 1987; Prahalad and Doz, 1987). To describe MNCs in a more meaningful way, one should consider not only the hierarchical interdependence between headquarters and subsidiaries but also the cross functional integration along business processes. We combine the literature on MNC's organizational structure in international business with the operations management literature on process organization to develop an extended integration framework. We then hypothesize eight typologies of MNCs and discuss respective examples from business practice. We conclude that the traditional focus on headquarter-subsidiary integration in the IR framework ignores a substantial variance among MNCs that could be better accounted for by considering MNCs' integration of business functions along their business processes.
Der Klimawandel ist heute eine der zentralen Herausforderungen, der sich Industrie und Gesellschaft gegenübersehen. Nach wissenschaftlichen Untersuchungen gelten dabei die an die Umwelt abgegebenen Treibhausgase als Auslöser der Erderwärmung, die wiederum den Klimawandel beeinflussen eine verhängnisvolle Kettenreaktion. [....]
Die anhaltende Diskussion über den Klimawandel weckte in der Bevölkerung das Interesse, den individuellen Einfluss auf das Klima zu erfassen. Allein in Deutschland zeigen sich über 80 % der Bundesbürger davon überzeugt, durch ihr Konsumverhalten wesentlich zum Umweltschutz beitragen zu können. Kunden achten auf die Umsetzung von Umweltstandards und Investoren sowie Medien bewerten Unternehmen zunehmend anhand ihrer Strategien beim Klima- und
Umweltschutz. Themen wie Nachhaltigkeit und Corporate Social
Responsibility (CSR) die freiwillige Übernahme von gesellschaftlicher Verantwortung durch Unternehmen rücken daher im Unternehmensumfeld immer mehr in den Blickpunkt. Zudem erwächst für Unternehmen durch die Nachfrage von Produkten und Dienstleistungen mit einer geringeren Emissionsbilanz die Bedeutung, Treibhausgasemissionen wie Kohlenstoffdioxid (CO2) und Methan (CH4) entlang des kompletten Lebenszyklusses (Life Cycle Assessment - LCA) eines Produktes oder einer Dienstleistung zu erfassen. Die Klimaverträglichkeit kann dabei mittels eines sog. CO2-Fussabdrucks, auch Product Carbon Footprint (PCF) genannt, aufgezeigt werden. Dies bedeutet u.a. für die Logistik eine grosse Herausforderung. Wissenschaft und Praxis sehen das vorrangige Problemen im Fehlen einer international anerkannten, standardisierten Vorgehensweise zur Erfassung von Treibhausgasemissionen. Eine globale Bewertung der Nachhaltigkeit kann nur gewährleistet werden, wenn eine gleich gewichtete Betrachtung aller Dimensionen der Nachhaltigkeit erfolgt. Dies beinhaltet neben den Treibhausgasemissionen weitere Aspekte auf die im Folgenden detailliert Bezug genommen wird.
Um Unternehmen dennoch die Möglichkeit zu geben, ihre Logistikkette in Bezug auf Nachhaltigkeitsanforderungen bewerten zu können, wird in dieser Arbeit ein entsprechender Handlungsleitfaden entwickelt. Hierdurch soll schon vor der Veröffentlichung internationaler Normen eine optimale Ausgangssituation zur Bilanzierung der Nachhaltigkeit
ermöglicht werden. [....]
To improve coordination in a supply chain all involved organizations should operate according to similar norms and rules - also known as institutions. Yet, little research covers how organizations effect institutional isomorphism in indirect relations (sub-suppliers).
We study this phenomenon on focal organizations' activities to establish compliance with their institutions by the actors involved in their supply chains. Sub-suppliers can hardly be forced by a focal organization and only through direct suppliers as mediators. An approach frequently used in business practice is including institutions in contractual agreements with suppliers requiring the suppliers to pass on the same institutions to sub-suppliers, all the way up to raw material sources (coercive isomorphism). This approach turns out to be difficult and requires more knowledge to apply it successfully.
In this context the proposed primary question of this paper is «how can a focal organization drive institutional isomorphism at sub-suppliers by contractual agreements through direct suppliers as mediators?»
Multinational company theory broadly considers mechanisms for global integration of headquarters-subsidiaries relationships. But only few studies analyze mechanisms for individual global integration of firms' components and adopt a systems approach to examine multiple mechanisms simultaneously with different levels of intensity. In this research we derive hypotheses on an ideal combination of centralization-based, formalization-based, people-based, and information-based mechanisms for each of eight supply chain business processes. Based on organization theory we argue that the combination of integration mechanisms used to individually integrate a given business process globally has to fit with the conditions of that process to positively affect corporate performance.
... Generic approaches on the reaction to disruptions in supply chains were derived from the results of the working group's discussions and confirmed by state-of-the-art literature. This served as basis for the Wütz and Stölzle's (2014) conceptual essay. In order to accentuate the practical perspective, seven case studies are conducted addressing the contemporary challenges and hands-on reactions to disruptions in supply chains.
The case studies draw attention to disruptions that occur (1) in distribution activities to customers, (2) in production activities, and (3) in sourcing activities with suppliers and sub-suppliers. Table 1 provides a summary of the examples clustered according to the part of the supply chain where the disruption occurred. ...
