Scientific position. Research setting and methods

“Methodology should reflect an overall research strategy” (Mason, 1996, p. 19). The methodological perspectives will be analyzed from the theoretical paradigms and their practical implementation during the research process, supporting explanations of “why things are” and “the way they are” (Hempel, 1965; Nagel, 1961).

This study has been carried out in a framework of qualitative research with the aim to extend the understanding of the mechanisms of influence from HQ towards subsidiaries in the process of internationalization. Empirical evidence has been collected from the documentary analysis, interviews and longitudinal observations from the field. This research is the first academic study, whose intention has been to analyze the internationalization process of “T”, the package of control mechanisms in

“T” and the concept of TW¹⁸; it can contribute to the management control literature through a better understanding of the processes of internationalization in MNCs in the multinational context, using the case studies from a Norwegian company. Despite the increasing attention on cross-cultural studies related to MNCs, little research on this topic has been performed, both in a concrete business

environment and specifically related to Norwegian companies as case studies.

The relevant research literature was found by searching in the following scientific databases: Science Direct, Oria, Saga, Emerald and JSTOR, and by carefully examining the reference lists of relevant articles. In the data collection process, the search was limited by including two principal factors:

context of the research and date of publication. The research context in the publications was limited to a focus on issues concerning the influence of MNC’s HQ over subsidiaries abroad. Regarding date of publication, the view was limited by including publications in the period from 2000 to 2015, in order to map the latest scholarly debate related to the topic of the research. The journals were selected, based on existing journal rankings: levels 4, 3 and 2 from Academic Journal Guide 2015, published by the Chartered Association of Business Schools, which supported this study with its list of the most influential journals.

18 T Way – a concept of the behavior platform in T. Hereafter in the text, it will be use as TW.

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As there was insufficient attention paid to the processes of internationalization and the phenomenon of influence in the previous management control and accounting research domain, for the literature review, it has been prioritized publications in scientific journals covering the disciplines of accounting.

The following journals were selected: Accounting, Organizations and Society; Accounting and Business Research; Accounting Horizons; Accounting Research Journal; The Accounting Review;

Accounting, Auditing and Accountability Journal; Behavioral Research in Accounting; British Accounting Review; Critical Perspectives on Accounting; European Accounting Review; International Journal of Accounting; Journal of Accounting and Economics; Journal of Accounting Research;

Journal of Accounting, Audit and Finance; Journal of Business Finance and Accounting; Journal of Financial Economics; Journal of International Accounting Research; Management Accounting Research; Review of Accounting and Finance; Review of Accounting Studies.

At the same time, the search process in the research domain of management led me to articles published in scientific journals –from the disciplines of international management, human resource management, strategic management and psychological science – that cover the topic of this study. Using the search parameters in the scientific databases as presented above, the focus has been on key words, such as

“influence from HQ towards subsidiaries in MNC”, and the search process led to the following journals: Asia Pacific Business Review; Journal of Management History; Strategic Management Journal; International Business Review; Journal of International Management; Academy of Management Journal; Journal of East-West Business; Scandinavian Journal of Management; Critical Perspectives on International Business; The International Journal of Human Resource Management;

Management International Review; Journal of World Business; Journal of Management Studies.

The reason why the decision was taken to investigate the publications in the above-named journals was to present selected contributions from the above-named scientific fields, with the aim of presenting a broader view on the phenomenon of influence in contemporary research. Scholarly literature in the academic field of management and strategy has made substantial contributions regarding the processes of internationalization and the mechanisms of influence. The literature from this field will support the findings from the accounting scientific field, in order to highlight the phenomenon of the HQ’s influence over subsidiaries abroad, during the process of internationalization in MNCs.

The question of the HQ’s influence on subsidiaries, in the process of internationalization of MNCs, is a matter of several studies. As previously mentioned, scientific streams will be presented, based on the research process in both accounting and non-accounting journals. Of the 84 articles selected, 34

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articles were taken from accounting journals and 50 from management, strategy, human resource management studies, presenting different types of influence from HQ towards subsidiaries, highlighting the forces which shape these variations in different geographic contexts: the USA, Europe and Asia. In just the first section, describing the research stream related to the issue of control, the findings from the accounting literature and non-accounting literature will be presented separately, due to the importunacy of the topic.

This is a case study of a Norwegian MNC, “T”: of both its HQ and some of its subsidiaries abroad.

Exploratory qualitative research

It is known that, due to the purpose, the research can be exploratory, descriptive, and causal. These categories are not mutually exclusive; they are a matter of emphasis (Zikmund, 2003). The object of exploratory research is to gather preliminary information in order to define problems and suggest hypotheses, and identify key issues and key variables (Kotler and Armstrong, 2006), contrary to the object of descriptive research (to provide an accurate description of observations of a phenomenon;

and causal research (to test hypotheses about cause-and-effect relationships) (ibid.). In order to answer the research questions, it was beneficial to utilize exploratory research, which gained familiarity with the phenomenon of influence and control, provide significant insight into processes connected with

“T”’s internationalization, leading to the formulation of the more precise problem of how people get along in the settings of “T”’s internationalization, what meanings they give to their actions, what are the issues concerning them, when the situations involving them occur, and why.

According to the data collection methods, research can be classified into qualitative and quantitative.

As defined by Hakim (1987, p.19), qualitative research provides the individuals own accounts of their attitudes, motivations and behavior; reports of individuals’ perceptions, beliefs, feelings, the meanings and interpretations given to events and things. It is also about their behavior, displaying how these are put together, more or less coherently and consciously, into frameworks, which make sense of their experiences. It illuminates the motivations which connect attitudes and behavior, the discontinuities, or even contradictions between attitudes and behavior, or how conflicting attitudes and motivations are resolved, and choices made. This research benefits from the use of qualitative methods, focusing on analysis processes connected with “T”’s internationalization and collecting all relevant data that will support the main purpose of the study.

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Depending on the time dimension, the research can be cross-sectional and longitudinal. Cross-sectional studies are those in which data is gathered once, during a period of days, weeks or months: that will be suitable for collecting information in subsidiaries abroad. Research carried out longitudinally involves data collection at multiple points in time and will be used to collect information from a field study in “T”’s HQ in Norway. According to the research setting, the study can be conducted either in contrived or non-contrived settings. A non-contrived setting is the natural environment in which events normally occur. Both field research and case studies are examples of non-contrived settings and benefit this project, as they are carried out in the natural environment with minimal interference from the researcher. Following the goal of this exploratory qualitative research – to learn “what is going on?”

(Schutt, 2011) and to investigate the social phenomenon of influence and control – it was beneficial to utilize the flexibility of exploration methodology in addressing research questions of all types in a framework such as a case study. Case studies have been defined by Yin (1989) as “an empirical inquiry that investigates a contemporary phenomenon within its real life context when the boundaries between the phenomenon and its context are unclear, and where multiple sources of evidence are used” (cited in Brownell, 1985) and “a phenomenon of some sort occurring in a bounded context” (Mile and Huberman, 1994).