MANAGING ACROSS BORDERS - AN EMPIRICAL-TEST OF THE BARTLETT AND GHOSHAL [1989] ORGANIZATIONAL TYPOLOGY

This paper reports an empirical test of the Bartlett and Ghoshal [1989 ] organizational typology. Some 131 senior executives of corporations with worldwide operations classified their organizations as being mult inational, global, international, or transnational in nature and evalu ated their organizations' configuration of assets and capabilities, ro le of overseas operations, and development and diffusion of knowledge. Results provide partial support for the typology. As expected, transn ational corporations were least frequently reported by the respondents . The hypothesized practices associated with multinational and global organizations were more consistent with the typology's predictions rel ative to those of the international and transnational types.