AbstractThe paper describes how six large Swedish multinational corporations manage the task of assuring strategic integration between headquarters and foreign subsidiaries. Swedish companies are shown to address the problem in an informal way and by leaving their foreign subsidiaries a great deal of autonomy. However, in many instances the necessary integration is not assured. Cases of strategic conflict between parts of companies are analysed, characteristics of and trends in the environment of multinational corporations are identified, and theoretical considerations are applied. With this discussion as a basis, some suggestions are advanced about how to involve subsidiaries more in strategic decision making.