Content area
Full Text
Introduction
Most of the international management literature dealing with multinational companies (MNCs) assumes that there are different types of MNCs, such as "polycentric, geocentric, ethnocentric, multidomestic, international, global and transnational" ([47] Harzing, 2000, p. 101). Such classifications are useful for:
- understanding the complexity, organizational structure, and functioning of MNCs;
- predicting MNC behavior; and
- integrating and comparing various studies, typologies, and frameworks ([47] Harzing, 2000).
Harzing believes Bartlett and Ghoshal's work published in 1989 is particularly valuable because "very few studies in the international management literature have tried to derive and test comprehensive typologies of MNCs" ([47] Harzing, 2000, p. 102) and they provide an extensive and extremely important concept through conceptualization and discussion of the transnational company typology.
In the evaluation of the intellectual contribution of Bartlett and Ghoshal's typology, Rugman described their work "as the most influential set of organizational studies in the history of international management" ([82] Rugman, 2002, p. 37), particularly highlighting the "linkage of the theoretical integration/national responsiveness matrix with the nine case studies of organizational structures of multinational enterprises (MNEs) across the 'triad' of the United States, Europe, and Japan" (p. 37).
In terms of its scientific influence, Barlett and Ghoshal's book Managing Across Borders: The Transnational Solution (1989) was voted as one of the top 50 most influential management books of the twentieth century by The Financial Times . Likewise, Bartlett and Ghoshal's textbook on transnational management is already in its sixth edition. [82] Rugman (2002) also showed how [9] Bartlett and Ghoshal's (1989) work was a particular favorite among MBA students, due to its pedagogical power and its comprehensive and robust case study approach. The "enormous influence [...] [of their work] on the broader fields of both strategic management and organizational theory" was especially emphasized by [82] Rugman (2002, p. 37) and [12] Bartlett and Ghoshal (2002); albeit [12] Bartlett and Ghoshal (2002) credited much of their seminal impact to luck and underdevelopment of the international management literature.
A recent analysis of the impact of the 1989 Bartlett and Ghoshal typology by [34] Ferreira (2011) is based on citation and co-citation analysis. It placed their framework among the top ten most cited and co-cited works in the Journal of International Business Studies (JIBS...