CFO Challenges in Multinational Companies

Course Director: Torkel Strömsten

The course is organized around five themes.

1. First, the organizational structures of MNCs will serve as the starting point for understanding how the finance function and the CFO role operate in large multinational companies. The organization of a company determines the extent to which the finance function and business control are centralized or decentralized. The theme will address performance management within different types of MNCs, where geopolitical risks, climate-related risks, supply chain disruptions, and other forms of exogenous risk will be brought up.
2. The second theme revolves around taxes in the context of MNCs. Taxes will be approached specifically from the perspective and challenges that arise from an MNC's perspective. The course will therefore also examine inter-company relations and transactions within multinational companies. It will explore how the tax consequences of such transactions must be managed responsibly, while ensuring that control and steering mechanisms remain effective.
3. The third is that resource allocation processes and capital budgeting in large multinational companies are critical for understanding the strategic directions these firms take—for example, regarding investments in more sustainable processes or products. The course will examine how investment decisions are evaluated and how they shape the long-term strategic direction of multinational corporations.
4. Fourth, the interaction with capital markets is of central importance for the CFO organization and MNC corporations. The course will examine how this interaction takes place and how communication around a company’s equity story is developed and conveyed effectively to investors and other stakeholders.
5. Lastly, the last theme will have a future outlook on the finance organization. The course will bring up issues such as digitalization and sustainability and how these topics will impact the role and organization of a modern finance organization. The role of AI in the finance organization will be given a specific focus and how this will impact skills and work in the future for finance professionals.

Format and Structure

The teaching will be structured around lectures, workshops and seminars, with guest lectures being integrated throughout the course. Group assignments and case studies will be used as miniprojects and will run parallel to the teaching and integrate insights from each module of the course.

Course Administrator: Christina.Ekelin@hhs.se

The course has the following intended learning outcomes. After the course a student should be able to:

1. Systematically describe and analyze the CFO and Finance functions in Multinational Companies, and how organizational structures facilitate or impede effective steering.
2. Systematically describe and analyze the various stakeholders the CFO role must manage and balance, and how different temporal requirements will influence how stakeholders are prioritized (or not):
3. Systematically describe and analyze coordination and allocation of responsibilities within multinational companies, and the role of management control function and management control systems
4. Quantitatively and qualitatively describe and critically evaluate management control techniques, and their appropriate application for solving multinational companies’ problems

General entry requirements

Please note. The following reading list is organized according to the modules of the course. The literature is preliminary and may be revised before the course begins.

In addition to the assigned course literature, it is assumed that each student has a basic understanding of the contents of the following two texts which were part of the curriculum for course M03302 – Strategic Management Control.

• Otley, David. 1999. Performance management: a framework for management control systems research. Management Accounting Research 10: 368–382.
• Simons, Robert. 1995. Levers of control: how managers use innovative control systems to drive strategic renewal. Boston: Harvard Business Press.

Module 1: Performance management in MNCs

• Hedlund, Gunnar. 1986. The Hypermodern MNC – A heterarchy? Human Resource Management 25: 9–25. Desai, M. A. "The Finance Function in a Global Corporation."Links to an external site. HBS Centennial Issue Harvard Business Review 86, nos. 7/8 (July–August 2008).
• Busco, Cristiano, Elena Giovannoni and Robert W. Scapens. 2008. Managing the tensions in integrating global organizations: The role of performance management systems. Management Accounting Research 19: 103–125.
• Beusch, P., Frisk, J. E., Rosén, M., & Dilla, W. (2022). Management control for sustainability: Towards integrated systems. Management accounting research, 54, 100777.

Module 2: Tax in Multinational Companies

• TBD

Module 3. Resource allocation processes in MNCs

• Bourmistrov, A., & Kaarbøe, K. (2013). From comfort to stretch zones: A field study of two multinational companies applying “beyond budgeting” ideas. Management Accounting Research, 24(3), 196–211.
• Christensen, C. M., Kaufman, S. P., & Shih, W. C. (2008). Innovation killers: how financial tools destroy your capacity to do new things. Harvard business review, 86(1), 98-105.
• Frost, G., & Rooney, J. (2021). Considerations of sustainability in capital budgeting decision-making. Journal of Cleaner Production, 312, 127650. Baldenius, T., Dutta, S., & Reichelstein, S. (2007). Cost Allocation for Capital Budgeting Decisions. The Accounting Review, 82(4), 837–867.

Module 4. The CFO organization and the Managing of the Capital Market

• Kraus, K. and Strömsten, T., 2012. Going public: The role of accounting and shareholder value in making sense of an IPO. Management Accounting Research, 23(3), pp.186-201.
• Roberts, J., Sanderson, P., Barker, R. and Hendry, J., 2006. In the mirror of the market: The disciplinary effects of company/fund manager meetings. Accounting, Organizations and Society, 31(3), pp.277-294.
• Biörklund, A., Graaf, J. & Strömsten, T. (2026) Crossing Borders: Strategic Categorization across Industry Classification Schemes (working paper).
• Solomon, J. F., Solomon, A., Joseph, N. L., & Norton, S. D. (2013). Impression management, myth creation and fabrication in private social and environmental reporting: Insights from Erving Goffman. Accounting, organizations and society, 38(3), 195-213.

Module 5: The Future of the Finance Organization in MNCs

• Goretzki, L., Strauss, E., & Wiegmann, L. (2017). Exploring the roles of vernacular accounting systems in the development of “enabling” global accounting and control systems. Contemporary Accounting Research. DOI: 10.1111/1911-3846.12357
• Newman, M., & Westrup, C. (2005). Making ERPs work: accountants and the introduction of ERP systems. European Journal of Information Systems, 14(3), 258-272.
• Quattrone, P. (2016). Management accounting goes digital: Will the move make it wiser? Management Accounting Research, 31, 118-122.
• Kurki, M., & Järvenpää, M. (2024). Engaging management accountants in corporate sustainability. Accounting, Auditing & Accountability Journal, 37(9), 100-127.

The course grade consists of 10% course participation, 10% group assignments, and one final exam (80%). The final exam is a closed-book exam, which will be administered centrally by the school. The group assignments and the exam project task closely follow each of the ILOs of the course. To pass the course, one must achieve 50% of the points in each of the three areas: course participation, group assignments, and final exam.

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