Headquarters activities are becoming increasingly disaggregated both geographically and organizationally within multinational corporations. Many corporations have intermediary headquarters, such as regional or divisional headquarters that manage activities within a given region or business unit. These headquarters, however, are not necessarily visible to outside actors as these responsibilities are often given to existing subsidiaries in addition to their local activities. To identify these somewhat hidden intermediary headquarters located in Finland, we have conducted research among foreign-owned subsidiaries since the early 1990s.
The identification of headquarters activities is increasingly difficult as the top management team may not be physically located in these headquarters any longer. Today, management responsibilities are increasingly dispersed to various units within the multinational corporations along their value chains. Therefore, in our research, we examine not only the intermediary headquarters but also the associated international management responsibilities that individual managers hold in Finland.
Through our research, we seek to find answers to the following questions: