Christopher A. Bartlett

Bio: Christopher A. Bartlett is an academic researcher from Harvard University. The author has contributed to research in topics: Global strategy & Multinational corporation. The author has an hindex of 35, co-authored 99 publications receiving 17740 citations.

Managing Across Borders: The Transnational Solution

Abstract: Widely acclaimed for its perceptive insights into the management of companies operating in an international environment, "Managing Across Borders" has established itself as a landmark book. Bartlett and Ghoshal describe the emergence of a revolutionary corporate form - the transnational - and reveal how the nature of the global competitive game has fundamentally changed."Highly readable! Valuable lessons for companies in a wide range of industries and sizes-indeed, almost any organization operating several different businesses across borders." - "The Financial Times". "A fascinating book! The conclusions certainly break away from the perceived wisdom about the factors needed for success in global markets." - "Management Today". "Managing Across Borders" makes clear that success in global strategy is as much a function of the ability to organize and manage as it is the ability to create a sound strategy. Bartlett and Ghoshal make an important and highly practical contribution in a book that represents the leading edge of thinking on this important subject." - Michael E.Porter, Bishop William Lawrence University Professor, Harvard Business School, and author of "Competitive Strategy".

The Multinational Corporation as an Interorganizational Network

Abstract: A multinational corporation consists of a group of geographically dispersed and goal-disparate organizations that include its headquarters and the different national subsidiaries. Such an entity can be conceptualized as an interorganizational network that is embedded in an external network consisting of all other organizations such as customers, suppliers, regulators, and so on, with which the different units of the multinational must interact. Based on such a conceptualization, the present authors draw on interorganization theory to develop a model of the multinational corporation as an internally differentiated interorganizational network. They propose hypotheses that relate certain attributes of the multinational, such as resource configuration and internal distribution of power, to certain structural properties of its external network.

Managing Across Borders: The Transnational Solution

Abstract: The article reviews the book “Managing Across Borders: The Transnational Solution,” by Christopher A. Barlett and Sumantra Ghoshal.

Managing across Borders

Abstract: BUSINESS The Ultimate Resource(TM) Manager is delighted to be able to bring to the attention of its readers this comprehensive new published work, which captures in one impressive volume a wealth of business information for the business literate manager. This is an authoritative 2.5 million word world almanac covering 24 industry sectors. It includes a comprehensive dictionary of business terms and a resource section that guides readers to books, organisations and web sites that provide a larger window into each area. Manager has arranged with the publishers to reproduce occasional selected articles, each of which is relevant to the editorial theme of the issue in which it is published. In keeping with the Globalisation theme of this issue, the second article to be reproduced from BUSINESS: The Ultimate Resource is this appraisal of Christopher Bartlett and Sumantra Ghoshal's widely respected book, Managing Across Borders. The obvious 'drivers' in this field are Administrative Managers. A unique project, BUSINESS: The Ultimate Resource is the result of an international editorial collaboration that has attracted 150 original essays from such world class contributors as Warren Bennis, Peter Bernstein, Watts Walker and Patricia Seybold. Each of these contributors has prepared original material, holding forth on a single subject, BUSINESS: The Ultimate Resource Bloomsbury Publishing ISBN 0 7475 5978 3 Hardback, 2208 pages L40.00 RRP To order, please contact Macmillan Distribution Ltd., Houndmills, Basingstoke, Hampshire, RG21 6XS. Telephone: +44 (0) 1256 302692. Fax: +44 (0) 1256 812558/812521. www.ultimatebusinessresource.com The Book Appraisal Bartlett, Christopher, and Sumantra Ghoshal. Managing Across Borders. 2nd ed. London: Hutchinson, 1989. Why Read It? Bartlett and Ghoshal map out the new business reality of globalisation and the kinds of organisations a 'borderless' business world requires. The book is regarded as a classic, and has helped many companies to focus on the type of organisation they need for global success. Getting Started Changing patterns of international management have led to a new global model, in which enabling innovation and disseminating knowledge in globally dispersed organisations is a major challenge. A number of organisational forms are now prevalent among global companies: multinational firms offer a high degree of local responsiveness; global firms offer scale efficiencies and cost advantages; international firms have the ability to transfer knowledge and expertise to overseas environments that are less advanced; and the transnational firm combines local responsiveness with global efficiency and the ability to transfer know-how better, cheaper, and faster. Integration and the creation of coherent systems for value delivery are the new drivers of organisational structure. Contribution 1. Changing patterns of international management The traditional international management model was simply to export your own way of doing things elsewhere, and companies believed that global operations were simply a means of achieving economies of scale. Local nuances were overlooked in the quest for global standardisation: global and local were mutually exclusive. In general, organisations either gave local operations autonomy or controlled them rigidly from a distance. …

Creation, Adoption and Diffusion of Innovations by Subsidiaries of Multinational Corporations

Abstract: This paper reports some of the findings of a multi-phased, and multi-method study on the organizational attributes that facilitate creation, adoption, and diffusion of innovations by subsidiaries of multinational companies. Comparison of results obtained through case research in nine companies, multiple-respondent questionnaire surveys in three companies, and a single-respondent survey in 66 North American and European multinationals reveal unambiguous and positive impacts of normative integration through organizational socialization and dense intra- and inter-unit communication on an MNC subsidiary's ability to contribute to the different innovation tasks. The findings are less consistent with regard to the effects of local resources and autonomy and it appears that the influences of these two attributes are strongly mediated by the levels of normative integration and organizational communication.

Explicating dynamic capabilities: the nature and microfoundations of (sustainable) enterprise performance

Abstract: This paper draws on the social and behavioral sciences in an endeavor to specify the nature and microfoundations of the capabilities necessary to sustain superior enterprise performance in an open economy with rapid innovation and globally dispersed sources of invention, innovation, and manufacturing capability. Dynamic capabilities enable business enterprises to create, deploy, and protect the intangible assets that support superior long- run business performance. The microfoundations of dynamic capabilities—the distinct skills, processes, procedures, organizational structures, decision rules, and disciplines—which undergird enterprise-level sensing, seizing, and reconfiguring capacities are difficult to develop and deploy. Enterprises with strong dynamic capabilities are intensely entrepreneurial. They not only adapt to business ecosystems, but also shape them through innovation and through collaboration with other enterprises, entities, and institutions. The framework advanced can help scholars understand the foundations of long-run enterprise success while helping managers delineate relevant strategic considerations and the priorities they must adopt to enhance enterprise performance and escape the zero profit tendency associated with operating in markets open to global competition. Copyright  2007 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Exploring internal stickiness: Impediments to the transfer of best practice within the firm

Abstract: The ability to transfer best practices internally is critical to a firtn's ability to build competitive advantage through the appropriation of rents from scarce internal knowledge. Just as a firm's distinctive competencies tnight be dificult for other firms to imitate, its best prczctices could be dfficult to imitate internnlly. Yet, little systematic attention has been pcrid to such internal stickiness. The author analyzes itlterrzal stickiness of knowledge transfer crnd tests the resulting model using canonical correlation analysis of a data set consisting of 271 observations of 122 best-practice transfers in eight companies. Contrary to corzverztiorzrzl wisdom that blames primarily motivational factors, the study findings show the major barriers to internal knowledge transfer to be knowledge-related factors such as the recipient's lack oj absorptive capacity, causal anzbiguity, and an arciuous relationship between the source and the recipient. The identification and transfer of best practices cally are hindered less by confidentiality and legal is emerging as one of the most important and obstacles than external transfers, they could be widespread practical management issues of the faster and initially less complicated, all other latter half of the 1990s. Armed with meaningful, things being equal. For those reasons, in an era detailed performance data, firms that use fact- when continuous organizational learning and based management methods such as TQM, bench- relentless performance improvement are needed to marking, and process reengineering can regularly remain competitive, companies must increasingly compare the performance of their units along resort to the internal transfer of capabilitie~.~ operational dimensions. Sparse but unequivocal Yet, experience shows that transferring capaevidence suggests that such comparisons often bilities within a firm is far from easy. General reveal surprising performance differences between Motors had great difficulty in transferring manuunits, indicating a need to improve knowledge facturing practices between divisions (Kerwin and utilization within the firm (e.g., Chew, Bresnahan, Woodruff, 1992: 74) and IBM had limited suc

The corporate social performance-financial performance link

Abstract: Strategic managers are consistently faced with the decision of how to allocate scarce corporate resources in an environment that is placing more and more pressures on them. Recent scholarship in strategic management suggests that many of these pressures come directly from sources associated with social issues in management, rather than traditional arenas of strategic management. Using a greatly improved source of data on corporate social performance, this paper reports the results of a rigorous study of the empirical linkages between financial and social performance. Corporate social performance (CSP) is found to be positively associated with prior financial performance, supporting the theory that slack resource availability and CSP are positively related. CSP is also found to be positively associated with future financial performance, supporting the theory that good management and CSP are positively related.? 1997 by John Wiley & Sons, Ltd

Social Capital and Value Creation: The Role of Intrafirm Networks

Abstract: Using data collected from multiple respondents in all the business units of a large multinational electronics company, we examined the relationships both among the structural, relational, and cogni...

Exploitation, Exploration, and Process Management: The Productivity Dilemma Revisited

Abstract: We develop a contingency view of process management's influence on both technological innovation and organizational adaptation. We argue that while process management activities are beneficial for organizations in stable contexts, they are fundamentally inconsistent with all but incremental innovation and change. But dynamic capabilities are rooted in both exploitative and exploratory activities. We argue that process management activities must be buffered from exploratory activities and that ambidextrous organizational forms provide the complex contexts for these inconsistent activities to coexist.