Why and how subsidiary manager identification matters for MNE strategy implementation: A case study

Subsidiary managers are key to multinational enterprises’ (MNEs’) global strategy implementation. Yet their role in the varying approaches subsidiaries take to strategy implementation remains understudied. Based on a comparative case study of corporate social responsibility (CSR) strategy implementation in four MNEs, we find that subsidiary manager identification plays a central role in the level of congruence between the subsidiary’s implementation approach and the headquarters’ global strategy. We also find that MNE-specific factors can influence the identification targets that subsidiary managers prioritize, thus indirectly affecting the subsidiary’s implementation approach. We contribute to the literature by developing a theoretical model that shows how subsidiary strategy implementation is influenced by this dynamic relation between MNE-specific factors and subsidiary manager identification.