Proceedings of the 25th International Academic Conference, OECD Headquarters, Paris

RESPECT DIFFERENCES: ROLE OF NATIONAL CULTURES IN SUBSIDIARY AUTONOMY IN GLOBAL PRODUCT DEVELOPMENT

THUNYAMAI THINOTAI

Abstract:

Food industry is an industry that has difficulty differentiating among products, so some product characteristics are easily copied by the competitors which lead a high failure rate among food products and a creativity crisis in the food industry. According to conventional wisdom, product localization with high local responsiveness is considered the lifeblood of establishing global competitiveness among food multinational corporations (MNCs). Within this perspective, a MNCs` subsidiary is considerate as an important source of knowledge for MNCs to be able to pursue charter enhancement and reinforcement initiatives. The research presents two research questions: How the autonomy was granted to MNCs subsidiary according to the national culture? And how a food MNCs develops understanding in national culture for subsidiary autonomy determination in local product development? The purpose of this ongoing research is to raise the importance of respect differences in national cultures aspect for subsidiary autonomy determination.

Keywords: global product development, subsidiary autonomy, national cultures, food industry

DOI: 10.20472/IAC.2016.025.058

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