International Management, Political Arena and Dispersed Entrepreneurship in the MNC

This paper presents a model of MNC dispersed entrepreneurship based on the concept of political arena. The model extends previous conceptualizations of MNC dispersed entrepreneurship by explaining how remote employees become stimulated to act as entrepreneurs through resolution of internal political arena within the international management context. We identify variables within this context at corporate, subsidiary, and individual levels as antecedents to political arena in the MNC. These are the corporate immune system, inappropriate control, subsidiary requirements differences and cognitive barriers to knowledge sharing. Different types of internal entrepreneurs (Austrian-like and Schumpeterian-like) emerge as a consequence of the different ways in which political arena is resolved. We discuss theoretical and managerial implications of the resultant multi-level model. © 2008 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.