Weight versus Voice : How Foreign Subsidiaries Capture the Attention of Corporate Headquarters

This paper investigates how foreign subsidiaries gain attention from corporate headquarters (HQ.) Using detailed questionnaire and archival data on 283 subsidiaries in multinational enterprises, our analysis revealed three significant findings. First, attention decisions are partially based on the structural positions that subsidiary units occupy within the corporate system - their quot;weight.quot; Second, subsidiaries also have a quot;voicequot; of their own which they can use to attract attention. Third, the relationship between subsidiary voice and HQ attention is moderated by two specific aspects of the subsidiary's historical situation - geographic distance and a downstream competence