The National Business System and Its Applications: Reflections from the Belgian Experience

Abstract

MNCs exercise control across borders by transferring employment practices to their subsidiaries. By drawing from “national business system” some studies indicate home- and host-country effects as mediating the transfer. Accordingly, institutional variance is national specific. However, sub-national institutions as well as local actors’ strategies are equally important. In the paper we originally use the concept of “institutional entrepreneurship” to illustrate how coordination mechanisms to mediate the transfer can be created beyond the national borders. Based on the Belgian case, we individuate three levels at which these coordination mechanisms operate: the region, the firm and the inter-firm.