Aggressive acquirers, laidback owners? Organisational dynamics of subsidiary integration in Chinese MNCs

Why do Chinese MNCs appear to be ‘aggressive’ in cross-border acquisition (Zeng and Williamson, 2003) yet ‘laidback’ (Liu and Woywode, 2013) in consolidating subsidiaries in developed economies? This paper addresses this question by examining power dynamics underpinning subsidiary integration and by bridging two relatively disconnected streams of literature in international business: subsidiary integration of emerging market MNCs in advanced economies, and the power relations inside MNCs. An exploratory case study is outlined to examine a Chinese MNC’s attempt to consolidate a newly acquired Canadian subsidiary. The findings suggest developing process-based power is critical to subsidiary integration for Chinese MNCs.