Implications of the COVID-19 pandemic on the headquarters-subsidiary relationship. A qualitative approach

Abstract

The main objective of this paper was to analyze the internationalization process of a small and medium-sized enterprise, with special emphasis on the headquarters-subsidiary relationship, which is a little-studied subject in the field of this type of company. A qualitative approach was followed, based on case studies in which the evolutionary perspective and the headquarters-subsidiary relationship were analyzed; in addition, the resource dependency theory was used. It is concluded that there are several paths and relationships between the headquarters and each branch. Moreover, these trajectories changed during the COVID-19 pandemic.