Upgrading local operations for global arbitrage

This study shows that upgrading sales operations in host countries towards production allows MNCs to perform global arbitrage in their networks of foreign subsidiaries and thereby contributes to a strategy of reaping the benefits of multinationality. We predict and find that operation upgrades follow opportunities of improving resource flows in the subsidiary network to exploit the advantages of host countries in tax rates, investment incentives, and technological knowledge across borders. Performance effects on the level of the MNC network give evidence of these benefits from global arbitrage.