RESEARCH PROPOSAL

Dispersed Entrepreneurship within Multinational Corporations: A Community Perspective



Table of Content

CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION1

Outline of Study1

Background of research1

Problem Statement2

Rationale2

Aims and Objectives3

Significance3

Research Question4

Limitation of Study4

Reliability6

Validity6

Ethical Concern7

CHAPTER 2: LITERATURE REVIEW9

A brief overview of MNC entrepreneurship9

Theoretical framework of MNC entrepreneurial community10

Research Design16

Data Collection Method16

CHAPTER 4: ANTICIPATED RESULT17

CHAPTER 5: CONCLUSION19

REFERENCES20

CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION

Outline of Study

Entrepreneurship is process of discovery, evaluation and exploitation of opportunities to create future goods and services It is widely recognised that knowledge plays the central role in this process. The entrepreneur makes decisions regarding new combinations based on an assessment of available information and knowledge is the resource to be called upon by entrepreneur. Innovation, one of critical dimensions of entrepreneurship, is facilitated by know-how trading. New product development, enhanced profits and national economic progress are linked to organized knowledge transformation. Knowledge, however, is not necessarily the straightforward resource that can be drawn on, traded and transformed in the predictable and planned way. It argues that: (Goodall and Roberts, 2003: 150)

“…knowledge of circumstances of which we must make use never exists in concentrated or integrated form, but solely as dispersed bits of incomplete and frequently contradictory knowledge which all separate individuals possess.” (Gupta and Govindarajan, 2000 :473)

Background of research

Prior research will be provided strong evidence that entrepreneurial communities exist in MNCs. For example, in case of Matsushita Electric Company, ability to create and exploit central innovations was possible because HQ managers spent considerable time interacting with subsidiaries in order to understand country-level needs and opportunities. In case of Procter and Gamble's development and launch of new liquid detergents on the global-for-global basis, the major joint effort was set-up and coordinated between previously independent local-for-local groups in order to share breakthroughs and developments(Gupta et al., 2004 :241). In case of Hewlett-Packard's development of monitoring technology for remote terminal units that control oil and gas wells, the district sales manager was central to identifying market need and acting pro-actively and tenaciously to build internal support for the new business.

Problem Statement

The paper will develop the new theoretical perspective on phenomenon of dispersed entrepreneurship in large multinational corporations (MNCs). We will endeavour to identify entrepreneurial communities as the way of explaining dispersed entrepreneurship within MNCs. This paper will, therefore, an exploratory exercise in building theory concerning entrepreneurial communities involving MNCs, looking specifically at their nature (how such communities create, share and utilise knowledge), what their antecedents are (why they arise in first place), and what their consequences are (why they are necessary). As the particular feature of multinational organizations that domestic firms do not enjoy, such communities are to be seen as an alternative to location-bound communities of practice and have important implications for MNC management. As the unit of analysis that has hitherto received scant or only implicit attention, they also have implications for future research and theory development.

Rationale

This paper will first reviews literature on MNC entrepreneurship, and then draws on community perspectives to identify key characteristics of entrepreneurial communities. A model of evolution of an MNC entrepreneurial community is then developed, along with ...