Thematical Analysis Assignment - Essay Example

munication, decision-making autonomy, the use of project teams, and differentiated models including socialisation, formalisation, and centralisation (Ambos and Schlegelmilch 2007). The results of this study indicate that MNC units give high priority to their agenda on R & D and interdependent control mechanisms; also that political approaches have relatively weak predictive power as compared to contingency approaches. According to Pagell and Halperin (1998, p.64) the mulinational corporation has its home in one country “but operates and lives under the laws and customs of other countries as well”.

The control mechanisms used in managing Research and Development international units are the various contingencies such as the role of communication and decision-making autonomy. theory and organisational power having the potential to unify the contingencies mentioned above into one framework, there is inhibition to the further progress and integration of this innovative development relating to control of R & D. This is because of the isolated treatment of individual contingency variables and the absence of a unifying theoretical framework.

Data was collected from 134 R & D units of German MNCs with research and development units located overseas, to test the hypotheses (Ambos and Schlegelmilch 2007). The strengths of the research methodology are that the size of the sample is adequately large for drawing relevant conclusions from the study, and the variables are comprehensive, including centralisation, formalisation, socialisation, cultural distance, R & D unit size, embeddedness, interdependence, international adaptors, and international creators.

No variable exhibits distribution or correlation problems. On the other hand, the weaknesses of the study include the fact that there is significant variance due to the sample size. The R & D units range in age from one year to over sixty years. The number of employees in the units also differ widely from 34%