PARENT SUBSIDIARY COMMUNICATION IN INTERNATIONAL BIOTECHNOLOGY R-AND-D

This paper investigates parent-subsidiary technical communication in m ultinational corporations (MNC's), Subsidiaries of European and Japane se MNC's operating biotechnology R&D facilities in the United States a re examined to determine how technical information is transmitted to a nd from their parent firms. A conceptual model is developed that relat es parent company and subsidiary attributes to technical communication between the parent and the US subsidiary. A multimethod approach usin g both survey and case study methodologies is employed to evaluate thi s model, The data indicate that European- and Japanese-owned subsidiar ies exhibit differences in a number of organizational, cultural, and t echnology-related attributes, which in turn appear to lead to differen ces in scientific and technical communication between the subsidiaries and their parents. The concept of communication structure from the or ganizational communication literature is used to provide a framework f or the discussion of the results, In this study, European and Japanese firms exhibit two distinct forms of communication structure character izing parent-subsidiary technical communication.