Managing Power in the Multinational Corporation: How Low-Power Actors Gain Influence

Abstract

This article provides a conceptual integration and synthesis of the literature on power and influence in multinational corporations (MNCs). To provide some focus to their synthesis, the authors concentrate on the situation facing, and the strategies pursued by, low-power actors within the MNC network, that is, actors who are currently positioned in relatively weak or low-status positions vis-à-vis other actors. Drawing inspiration from Ghoshal, the authors make a clear separation between ends and means: between the objectives pursued by low-power actors (their ends) and the strategies or tactics they pursue to achieve these objectives (their means). This approach allows the authors to pull together some strands of literature that had previously been entirely separate.