Abstract
This thesis proposes a grounded theory of the phenomenon of local survival within multinational corporations. The aim is to study the following question: what kind of strategies might be developed by manufacturing plants in order to survive and remain in the value chain of a multinational despite a context of globalization and costs rationalization? The historical analysis of the case of IBM Montpellier allows us to interpret the phenomenon of local survival as resulting from the maturation of a managerial process of survival by transformation. This process is composed of three stages: a compliance phase during which local actors feel little exogenous pressures and simply adopt and implement practices and directives coming from headquarter; an opposition phase that emerges in response to sudden threats and consists in contesting the diffusion of some logics in order to protect and maintain the established local order; and a transformation phase during which local actors seek to anticipate future evolutions of the company and redefine local practices and logics in order to influence or bypass certain decisions deemed to threaten the future of the site. The thesis highlights the paradoxical nature of this survival strategic process since it lies at the interface between resistance and compliance. The approach studied consists in translating, negotiating, or deviating organizational changes instilled by headquarter. Finally, our observations show that for subsidiaries, a survival strategy entails not to fight change but to support it in order to find or to create their new place in the global value chain.