Beyond Simple Headquarters Configurations: Headquarters Involvement in Multibusiness Firms’ Innovation Activities

We investigate “dual headquarters involvement”, i.e. corporate and divisional headquarters’ simultaneous involvement in subsidiaries’ innovation development projects. Analyses draw on 85 innovation projects in 23 multibusiness firms and reveal that cross-divisional innovation importance, i.e., an innovation that is important for the firm beyond the divisional boundaries, drives dual headquarters involvement in innovation development. Contrary to expectations, on average, a non-significant effect of cross-divisional embeddedness on dual headquarters involvement is found. Yet, both cross-divisional importance and embeddedness effects are contingent on the overall complexity of the innovation project as signified by the size of the development network. The results lend support for the notion that parenting in complex structures entails complex headquarters structures and that we need to go beyond simple conceptualizations of headquarters.