Subsidiary anti-nitiatives: Why do foreign subsidiaries decide to not leverage expertise to the firm?

Research on subsidiary initiatives has focussed a lot on the positive aspects of such initiatives for both the subsidiary and the global firm. In this paper we question the underlying assump-tion of this research that to leverage subsidiary expertise represents a Pareto improvement for both the global firm and the subsidiary. We then develop the idea of anti-nitiatives, that is, the conscious activities of a foreign subsidiary in a multinational firm that aim to not leverage the subsidiary's expertise to the global firm. We further distinguish 'active' and 'passive' anti-nitiatives.
Following this conceptual development, we use a grounded theory approach to explore the reasons for the existence and persistence of anti-nitiatives by analysing a longitudinal single case study. We find ample evidence for the existence of anti-nitiatives and for the various forms they can take. We are also able to identify the reasons and enabling factors for their emergence. Finally, we discuss the implications of our findings for research on subsidiary initiatives, and we discuss some impacts for research on strategic initiatives.