Subsidiary initiatives and subsidiary autonomy: Evidence from New Zealand and Brazil Muhammad Mustafa Raziq & Felipe Mendes Borini & Martin Perry # Springer Science+Business Media New York 2012 Abstract The paper uses evidence from a developed and a developing economy (New Zealand and Brazil) to study the consequence of multinational subsidiary initiative taking for subsidiary autonomy. Initiative taking and autonomy are known to increase the likelihood of a subsidiary continuing to grow and develop. Uncertainty remains as to whether subsidiaries acquire or lose auton- omy as they engage in initiatives partly as the willingness to pursue initiatives can be viewed positively or negatively by the parent company. By using cross- country data and distinguishing three types of initiative according to the scope of their potential impact (internal, local and global) the study provides a basis for examining this topic that improves on evidence from a single country or single initiative study. Data from 200 multinational subsidiaries in New Zealand and 172 in Brazil are gathered for analysis. As well as examining the overall relationship between initiative taking and autonomy the study presents the first evidence on this topic for subsidiaries in New Zealand and Brazil. The overall conclusion is that subsidiary initiative taking is likely to increase subsidiary autonomy but the affect over autonomy is dependent upon the type of initiative that the subsidiary undertakes: subsidiary autonomy is more likely to increase as a result of a local market initiative than a global or internal market initiative. Keywords Subsidiary entrepreneurship . Subsidiary initiatives . Subsidiary autonomy . Foreign direct investment Int Entrep Manag J DOI 10.1007/s11365-012-0240-5 M. M. Raziq (*) School of Management, Massey University, Palmerston North, New Zealand e-mail: m.m.raziq@massey.ac.nz F. M. Borini Escola Superior de Propaganda e Marketing (ESPM), São Paulo, SP, Brasil M. Perry School of Management, Massey University, Wellington, New Zealand