CENTERS OF EXCELLENCE IN MULTINATIONAL CORPORATIONS

Centers of Excellence in Multinational Corporations 1009for non-centers of only 7 percent. Interestingly,however, non-centers have the highest averagelevel of internal purchases, averaging 30 percent oftotal purchases. The asymmetry between internalsales and purchases for non-centers is suggestiveof a dependent relationship between headquartersand subsidiary, consistent with the classicalview of the multinational firm as a mechanismfor exploiting headquarters-created advantages inforeign markets. However, manufacturing centersappear to be especially well integrated into theglobal operations of the parent firm, as evidencedby the combination of high exports and highlevels of both internal sales and purchases. Overall,there do not appear to be major differences inthe autonomy levels experienced by any of thedifferent types of unit: only research centers appearto have a slightly higher level of autonomy(reflected in the lower average autonomy score).Table 3 contains the correlation matrix. For allthree centers, there is a moderately high correlationwith external sources of competence development;the correlations with internal influences aremore modest, although still significant, with theexception of manufacturing centers where internalinfluences appear especially important (r = 0.296,p