MNC subsidiaries' position in global knowledge networks and local spillovers: evidence from Argentina

Abstract

The importance of MNCs in emerging economies has increased substantially in recent times. This paper develops a ‘subsidiary-centred’ model for the estimation of spillovers from Foreign Direct Investments in Argentina. It conceives MNC subsidiaries as nodes of an inter-organisational network, and it analyses the degree to which different ‘positions’ in the global knowledge network influence the generation of local spillover effects. It finds that only subsidiaries that are open to extra-corporate knowledge sources (vis-à-vis intra-corporate sources) generate positive local spillovers, and shows that these subsidiaries have entrepreneurial features. The paper opens up new promising research directions.