Thesis (Ph.D.) -- University of Puerto Rico, Rio Piedras, 2012.

Includes bibliographical references.

This dissertation is a collection of three independent essays in foreign subsidiary divestment decision-making process, organized in the form of three chapters.

In Essay 1, "Foreign Subsidiaries Divestment Decision Process: The Puerto Rico Pharmaceutical Industry Experience" is a quantitative-based study which uses a questionnaire that focuses on the stages, processes, and activities involving managers and is designed to compare and integrate the responses of all study participants. Specifically, the roles of subsidiary executives, the behavior of parties, the relations between headquarters and subsidiaries, the impact of patent expiration and the impact of being an acquired subsidiary in the role of foreign subsidiary executives in the divestment decision process.

In Essay 2, " Foreign Subsidiary Divestment Decision Process: A Descriptive Model Based on the Multiple Case Studies of Puerto Rico Pharmaceutical Industry" I adopt the subsidiary's perspective through a case study of the experiences that executives had in plants located abroad to analyze the decision process and its stages and uses this insight for building a divestment decision process model tempered with the current relations between company headquarters and foreign subsidiaries. This article discusses the stages, steps and activities realized during the decision process to divest a high tech affiliate in the light of existing literature in international business and foreign divestment decisions. Our findings added that in the initial stages of decision-making, control is in the parent companies and subsidiaries are participants receiving information. However, once the plant has decided to divest, all control of the planning and execution of the decision is eventually transferred to the executives of the plant.

In the third essay, "The Roles, Behaviors and Participation of Foreign Subsidiary Executives in the Affiliate Divestment Decision Process", chapter four of the dissertation, is a multiple case study that is used to study executives' participation and behaviors in the divestment decision process to divest high tech subsidiaries. The aim is to analyze the behaviors, participation and roles of subsidiary executives (plant management) in the different phases of the divestiture decision.

This essay is evidence that the roles and behaviors performed by managers vary significantly in importance. According to the decision process moves at the start of the executive activities are limited and are focused on finding information in the external environment, communication of the analysis carried out on manage operations.

Referencia bibliográfica según el manual de estilo de APA (6th ed.): Baquero Rosas, L.M. (2012). Multinational foreign subsidiary divestment decisions making process: Evidences from Puerto Rico pharmaceutical industry experience. (Tesis de doctoral sin publicar). Universidad de Puerto Rico, Rio Piedras.