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On this page you can find a selection of my academic publications. Please visit my Google Scholar page for a complete list.
Deeply rooted and versatile? Knowledge scouts and external knowledge integration in multidivisional firms
Forthcoming at the Academy of Management Journal (with Felipe Monteiro and Francisco Polidoro)
Large firms often rely on knowledge scouts to find useful startup technologies and help divisions turn them into new products. Our research shows that although scouts with deep roots in one division can be highly effective there, differences in how each part of the firm works make it difficult for them to leverage their experience across divisions. We also identify the situations in which this experience becomes transferable, offering guidance on how established firms can better build on the knowledge of startups.
More effective solutions? Senior managers and non-routine problem solving
Strategic Management Journal (2023, with Esther Tippmann, Phillip C. Nell and Andrew Parker)
Subsidiaries of multinational corporations frequently face non-routine problems—new, unfamiliar issues that offer opportunities for improvement but require deep understanding of the local context. Our research shows that the involvement of senior headquarters managers tends to reduce problem-solving effectiveness, especially for problems tied to products, services, and customers, where local contextual knowledge is key. We also find that senior subsidiary managers can counteract these effects by guiding headquarters managers’ contributions and ensuring that knowledge transferred across organizational units is adapted to local needs.
What's in a Name? How Senior Managers use Name-Based Heuristics to Allocate Financial Resources in Multinational Corporations
Journal of Management Studies (2022, with Jelena Cerar and Phillip Nell)
Multinational corporations often rely on senior headquarters managers to decide which entrepreneurial initiatives in subsidiaries receive funding. Our research shows that, under uncertainty, these managers rely on name-based heuristics—drawing inferences from both the country and the subsidiary manager’s name—that systematically shape how they allocate resources. This reveals how subtle cues about people and context can bias internal capital markets and influence which ideas move forward in global firms.
Innovation outposts in entrepreneurial ecosystems - How to make them more successful
California Management Review (2021, with Felipe Monteiro, Jean-Marc Frangos, and Lisa Friedman)
Many multinational companies establish innovation outposts in startup-rich ecosystems to spot emerging technologies and connect them to the rest of the firm. Our research shows that these outposts often struggle to act as effective brokers because they can become too externally focused, too internally focused, or too disconnected from key stakeholders on either side. We identify practical ways to redesign their purpose, structures, and processes so that ideas sourced externally can be translated, adapted, and scaled across organizational boundaries inside the firm.
Headquarters involvement, socialization, and entrepreneurial behaviors in MNC subsidiaries
Long Range Planning (2019, with Phillip Nell and Diego Stea
This study examines how headquarters involvement shapes subsidiary managers’ willingness to champion new ideas. While headquarters can, in principle, help by sharing practices from elsewhere or by acting as ambassadors for ideas developed locally, we find that their involvement is often perceived as interference and tends to reduce local initiative-taking. In firms with strong socialization and shared culture, however, headquarters can engage more constructively, helping knowledge move across organizational boundaries without dampening local proactivity.
The dynamic response process to conflicting institutional demands in MNC subsidiaries – An inductive study in the Sub-Saharan African e-commerce sector
Global Strategy Journal (2017, with Alison E. Holm, Phillip Nell and Patricia Klopf)
Subsidiaries of multinational firms often confront conflicting institutional demands, balancing local market pressures with global headquarters expectations. Through a longitudinal case of an e-commerce subsidiary in sub-Saharan Africa, we show how subsidiaries adapt over time by experimenting with practices and blending global templates with local innovations. These findings illustrate how subsidiaries act as bridges within the multinational, enabling knowledge to travel across units and regions.
Here are also two articles featuring my work:
How Firms Can Better Build on the Knowledge of Start-ups – INSEAD Knowledge (2025, with Felipe Monteiro and Francisco Polidoro)
Using Fiction to Find Your Strategy – Harvard Business Review (2022, with Mathieu Aguesse)
Benoit Decreton | Assistant Professor in Strategy and Entrepreneurship | Nova SBE
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