Research to date on centralization in MNCs has produced many inconsistent findings. The present study attempts to add clarity to the situation by re-testing many of the existing hypotheses with data from a recent study of centralization in 50 large US, UK and European MNCs. It examines how the degree of centralization inherent in the headquarters-foreign subsidiary relationship varies in response to a variety of company-wide and subsidiary level conditions. The influence of company-wide conditions on centralization appears to be much clearer than the influence of subsidiary-level conditions. The study also identifies several new contingency patterns that appear to be at work in MNCs today.

Building on the codification and dynamic capabilities literatures, we pursue deeper insight into the underlying mechanisms of deliberate learning in the context of postacquisition integration. We argue that experience codification gives rise to inertial forces that hamper the customization of routines to any given acquisition. We theorize, therefore, that successful acquirers develop higher-order routines—as manifested in two complementary sets of concrete organizational practices—that prevent the generalization of inapplicable (“zero-order”) codified routines. After drawing on in-depth qualitative data to help build our theoretical argument, we test it formally with unique survey data on 85 active acquirers.

Much is known about the importance of dynamic capabilities. Yet, surprisingly little is known about how multiple dynamic capabilities might be developed in parallel, since most existing work explores a particular dynamic capability in isolation. Using rich quantitative and qualitative data on D ow C hemical's acquisitions, joint ventures, and divestitures over the past 20 years, we seek to address this gap. Besides contributing by adding fresh insights about managing growth and the utility of distributed practice, and by shedding light on positive and negative experience transfer, our core contribution is an emergent theoretical framework that develops the concept of “concurrent learning. ” Copyright © 2014 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.