The tension of information sharing: Effects on subsidiary embeddedness

This paper investigates the relationship between foreign subsidiary competition and embeddedness in a peripheral area of an advanced country. The study argues that pressure to innovate and unintended private knowledge spillovers compete in explaining the relationship between competition and embeddedness as a result of the tension of information sharing. Such a tension can be relaxed when accounting for subsidiaries’ competence-creating entry motives. Statistical analysis supports this argument. This study contributes to the broad IB field as well as to business network theory and to research on the creation of local linkages by MNEs. Implications for managers and policy-makers are also discussed.