Multinational Corporations (MNCs) as economic and social actors have an enormous impact on the global economy. They have been acknowledged as the forefront of the technological and organizational developments (Lundan, 2018) while also presented as resource spoilers in other contexts (Narula, 2018). Currently, the economic environment MNCs face is determined by the fragmentation of the global production. Mainly, this is due to technological advances, the rise of emerging economies and liberalization policies (Narula, 2014) which have facilitated cross-border coordination of transactions (Kano, 2017). As a consequence, the MNC is assisting to the subsequent dispersion of its activities which is introducing an increasing complexity in its corporate structures. Related to this, in the last years, research efforts have been placed mainly to understand the dispersion of production and R&D activities along the value chains and across countries. However, less attention has been put on the redistribution of authority and responsibilities at internal levels (Kostova, Nell and Hoenen, 2016) associated with the increasing complexity. In this sense, the coordinating function of networked MNCs arises as a central paradigm to analyze multinational firms (Mudambi, 2011). Recent literature started to explore the relationship between complex corporate structures and complex parenting systems (Goold and Campbell, 2002). This pioneering research helped to overcome the idea of the existence of a single Headquarter (HQ) located in the home country (Nell, Kappen and Laamanen, 2017). In fact, appears that in parallel to the dispersion of other activities, HQs are being also dispersed and relocated, even in parts (Birkinshaw, Braunerhjelm, Holm and Tejersen, 2006) as this complexity consolidates. The concept of Intermediate Units (IU) is relatively recent and is used to refer to every form of Intermediary Headquarter (HQ) in the Multinational Corporation (MNC). There is a spectrum of related but dispersed concepts in the literature raging form Regional Headquarters and Divisional Headquarters to Sub-regional Headquarters, Domestic HQs, Regional Management Mandates, regional offices, springboard subsidiaries, dispersed HQs among others. All of them share the intermediate position in terms of strategy and structure between the HQ and the local subsidiaries. Their main characteristic is holding responsibilities, to a different extent, among other subsidiaries. The main goal of this dissertation is to organize current state of knowledge on IUs to integrate and unify, theoretically and empirically the concept. Furthermore, we aim to explore the common characteristic of these units. Second, and following recent literature displacing HQs as value creating units at the MNC (Nell and Ambos, 2013; Ciabuschi, Forsgren and Martin, 2017), we study the competence creation capability of these units through their engagement in political networks. To the date, embeddedness in political networks has been underestimated as a means to develop capabilities in the MNC (Puck, Lawton and Mohr, 2018) and the extensive embeddedness of IUs provides the perfect arenas to compare different subsidiary strategies at intermediate levels. Third, recently, IUs are shown to develop two different parenting capabilities according to Chandler (1991): the coordinative and the entrepreneurial (Mahnke, Ambos, Nell and Hobdari, 2012; Hoenen, Nell and Ambos, 2014; Belderbos, Du and Goerzen, 2017). Our last goal is to study how these units develop its influence exploring their different sources of power. The sample used includes 193 Spanish subsidiaries, a percentage of which are considered IUs. Given the particularities of the phenomenon under study, we use 2 different statistical techniques in the chapters composing the dissertation: structural equation modeling with a multigroup analysis and mean differences. This research is anchored in a network paradigm as research questions respond to value creating approaches inside the MNC. Complex parenting structures, parenting capabilities and competence creation are topics developed within MNCs modeled as systems and therefore this will be our approach. Our results throw several contributions but, in general terms, this dissertation contributes doubly responding to the above objectives: first, integrates theoretically and empirically the related literature under the umbrella of IUs concept. Second, confirms the value creation profile of IUs. They hold responsibilities over other units and perform HQ related coordinative or and entrepreneurial activities and develop specialized parenting capabilities.