Theorizing headquarters attention structures and subsidiary resilience-dualities in global value chains

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Abstract
Persistent fragilities in global value chains (GVCs) necessitate an intra-organizational adaptation. In this respect, external pressures shape the allocation of multinational enterprise (MNE) headquarters (HQ) attention on their subsidiaries’ actions addressing resilience-related issues in GVCs. Extant theorizing treats HQ attention as a dichotomy (i.e. positive/negative), limiting our insight into the attention governance in HQ-subsidiary relationships. We overcome this limitation by theorizing HQ attention structures that govern the order of attention to prioritized issues (e.g., resilience strategies) across subsidiaries. This structure encompasses attentional orientation, expatriates, slack resources, and dual embeddedness, distributes HQ limited attention in order to shape subsidiary trade-offs between reactive and proactive, or even dual resilience strategies in GVCs. Our analysis culminates in testable propositions and microfoundations of HQ attention structures. Overall, we provide a comprehensive framework and a research agenda for studying HQ attention dynamics in MNEs and their effects on subsidiary resilience duality in GVCs in international business.

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