Japanese Firms in Transition: Responding to the Globalization Challenge (Advances in International Management, Vol. 17)

Drawing on empirical data from two studies of 119 Japanese affiliates located in the United States and Europe, this chapter focuses on three fundamental questions: (1) What organizational factors influence performance of the overseas affiliates of Japanese MNCs? (2) What impact does expatriate staffing have on the affiliate’s performance? (3) What factors influence expatriate staffing patterns in Japanese MNCs? The empirical results lend support to the hypothesis that MNCs characterized by global integration and local responsiveness will outperform less transnational competitors, although there are significant differences between the American and European subsamples on the impact of expatriate presence on affiliate performance. In addition, there is no support for the life-cycle prediction that age or parent company experience influences expatriate staffing levels or for the resource dependence prediction that integration with the parent influences expatriate presence. These results and their implications are discussed.