Purpose – The main goal of the article is to determine the mediating role of human resources management (HRM) outcomes in the relationships between shaping employee work engagement and job satisfaction (SEWE&JS) and company performance results and to establish whether there are any identifiable regularities in this scope in the pre-pandemic and pandemic period in the headquarters (HQs) and foreign subsidiaries of multinational companies (MNCs).
Design/methodology/approach – The empirical research included 200 MNCs headquartered in Central Europe. The raw data in the variables were adjusted with the efficiency index (EI) to capture the actual relations between the variables under study. The partial least squares structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM) was used to verify the research hypotheses and assess the mediating effects.
Findings – The research findings show that the HRM outcomes positively mediate the relationships between SEWE&JS and the company performance results. HRM outcomes turned out to be a stronger mediator between SEWE&JS and company performance results in finance and quality in the HQs during the pandemic. By contrast, in the local subsidiaries, they were a stronger mediator of the relationships between the results in innovativeness and quality during the pandemic.
Originality/value – In addition to confirming the results of some other researchers, the research findings also provide new knowledge. They determine the mediating role of HRM outcomes in the relationship between SEWE&JS and the three categories of company performance results, namely finance, innovativeness and quality. In addition, they identify certain regularities in the four studied contexts, which is a novelty in this type of research. A novelty is also the use of employee key performance indicators (KPIs) in the data analysis as the efficiency index in analyzing the effect of the variables under study. The value of the research is also the fact that it covers HRM in MNCs established in Central Europe, which, compared to MNCs from the Western world, is not a frequent subject of research

Purpose – This study aims to understand the role of drivers, underlying challenges and, consequently, the implications of the reverse knowledge transfer (RKT) process for the multinational enterprises (MNE)s.
Design/methodology/approach – A dyadic qualitative research design was used with a cross-country design covering perspectives from both the headquarters and subsidiaries from the USA, Denmark, Pakistan, India and Bangladesh. In-depth interviews were conducted with managers in multiple sectors such as information technology, telecommunications, project management and engineering.
Findings – The study reveals the constraints and drivers of the RKTprocess, and furthermore elaborates on the implications for MNEs. RKT can lead to the development of new processes, subsidiary independence and intraorganizational knowledge transfer. Besides, it can entail challenges such as position insecurity for subsidiaries and a blurring of the MNE market vision. The findings demonstrate several implications for the MNEs.
Practical implications – The study highlights the direct implications of RKT for the multinational enterprises. The findings serve as a practical guide for global managers seeking to improve their competitive edge.
Originality/value – The study presents a framework of the RKT process from emerging market subsidiaries to parent companies, that demonstrates the role of drivers, underlying challenges and implications of the RKT process for the MNEs

Purpose – Coopetition is ubiquitous in the economy, but managing effectively this type of relationship between firms remains a challenge for many organizations. This paper investigates the coopetition within corporate groups and focus on factors that determine the simultaneous competition and cooperation between subsidiaries therein.
Design/methodology/approach – Drawing on a dataset of 121 corporate groups listed on the Warsaw Stock Exchange (WSE), this paper theoretically advances and empirically validates the impact of 18 factors which determine the coopetition relationship.
Findings – This study’s findings confirm the importance of an organizational design among external and internal drivers of intrafirm coopetition. However, the role of an environmental uncertainty as a driver of intrafirm coopetition is not proven. Furthermore, the paper finds that internal determinants explain the phenomenon of coopetition between subsidiaries within a corporate group more than determinants related to the environment.
Originality/value – The paper contributes to the coopetition theory by empirical identification of drivers of intrafirm coopetition and advances the corporate groups studies by exploring internal relationships (cooperation and competition) and the determinants therein.

Purpose: The goal of the paper is to analyse the determinants of the level of ROE (return on equity) for two groups of banks, interrelated by capital links, and their banking sectors.

Methodology: For the case study, we chose companies that, in 2011–2013, were designated by the Financial Stability Board as global systemically important banks (G-SIBs) and their subsidiaries operating in Central, Eastern and Southeastern Europe (CESEE) as well as their banking sectors. We sought to identify differences in the performance drivers, taking into account bank-specific and country- (or sector-) specific factors.

Findings: We found no significant differences in the level of ROE among the analysed groups; however, we identified a different set of determinants and their impact on ROE.