Subsidiary strategy in the modern multinational: Grappling with change and complexity

This perspective article calls for a conceptual reset of subsidiary strategy research, addressing the fragmentation and semantic ambiguity that have diluted its theoretical coherence. We trace the field’s evolution from static role typologies to dynamic, capability- and knowledge-based views that recognize subsidiaries as active strategists within multinational enterprises (MNEs). In today’s world of deglobalization, geopolitical tension, and technological disruption, we re-anchor subsidiary strategy in the core principles of strategy, where deliberate and emergent choices, the configuration of activities, and the pursuit of sustained advantage are adapted to the MNE’s internal competitive arena. We advance an integrative framework highlighting identity, legitimacy, subsidiary leadership agency and non-market engagement as complementary factors influencing subsidiary strategic trajectories. We propose a future research agenda emphasizing processual, longitudinal, and microfoundational approaches to explain how subsidiaries build influence, reconfigure mandates, and secure survival within evolving global value chains.