Implementing strategic initiatives in MNE subsidiaries: Contrasting the path-dependency and effectuation approaches
研究了跨国企业子公司经理在面对宏观环境剧变（如经济数字化、全球价值链重构）时，如何通过路径依赖或效果逻辑方法制定和实施新的投资举措，以优化战略响应。
Radical shifts in the macro-level environment, such as the fast digitalization of the economy and the imposed reconfiguration of global value chains (for instance because of global decoupling), have created new challenges for multinational enterprise (MNE) subsidiary managers. Radical shifts in the environment can have major implications for a subsidiary’s activities in the MNE’s value chain, and for its distinct underlying competences and role in the MNE network. What are the optimal subsidiary strategic responses, in the form of new investment initiatives, to radical shifts in the environment? We examine the implications of adopting a path-dependency versus an effectuation approach to guide subsidiary managers in responding to radical, exogenous shifts. We describe the path-dependency view on Patterns of subsidiary evolution. We then suggest that an effectuation approach can be useful to subsidiary managers facing radical environmental change, especially when enacting and implementing pattern-breaking investment initiatives, whereby they should attempt to broaden the range of reasonably possible options available to them and engage in experimentation.