¹Strategic Organization Design Unit (SOD), Department of Marketing and Management, University of Southern Denmark, Odense, Denmark

Correspondence: T Knudsen, Strategic Organization Design Unit, Department of Marketing and Management, University of Southern Denmark, Campusvej 55, DK-5230 Odense M, Denmark. Tel: +45 6550 1000; Fax: +45 6615 5129; E-mail: tok@sam.sdu.dk

Received 17 January 2006; Revised 25 January 2008; Accepted 25 January 2008; Published online 3 July 2008.

Abstract

The present study identifies a major limitation of current research on multinational enterprises (MNEs). Joint decision-making in a distributed setting is of critical importance in practice, but has received little attention in our theories. To address this gap in knowledge, we examine the effects of flexible decision teams when MNEs assess turbulent markets. Remarkably, flexible teams composed of fallible evaluators can outperform what is usually thought of as an "optimal" decision. Our main result supports the claims advanced in recent empirical studies. Structural flexibility can help MNEs achieve high levels of performance, even in conditions of turbulence.