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Management International Review

01-08-2010 | Research Article

Regional Management as a System

A Longitudinal Case Study

Published in: Management International Review | Issue 4/2010

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Abstract

  • We apply information processing theory to investigate the evolution of regional management.
  • Based on a longitudinal case study of a European multinational we capture the overall structural development of the firm and within this context, we conduct an in-depth analysis of two regions and their regional management centres.
  • We conceptualise regional management as a system of differentiated centres. The notion that headquarters can be found in a single location is replaced by the view that headquarters’ activities are spatially distributed within a system. Over time, this multi-level system adapts to changing information processing requirements.

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Footnotes
1
We acknowledge that information processing theory has been used at many different levels of analysis. In international business, Ambos (2002) and Luo (2006) represent such examples for the subsidiary level. However, when it comes to analyzing regional management structures, information processing theory has, to our knowledge, only been used at the macro level.
 
2
A large part of the growth in Asia-Pacific was due to acquisitions made at that time.
 
3
All regional managers were male.
 
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Metadata
Title
Regional Management as a System
A Longitudinal Case Study
Publication date
01-08-2010
Published in
Management International Review / Issue 4/2010
Print ISSN: 0938-8249
Electronic ISSN: 1861-8901
DOI
https://doi.org/10.1007/s11575-010-0044-1