{ "model": { "rank": 6207, "code": "thing-q658255", "model_id": "vr.tr.subsidiary-company", "name": "subsidiary company", "purpose": "Let an agent explain subsidiaries and their legal and accounting treatment, identify specific subsidiaries and parents with sources, describe why groups use subsidiaries, and support corporate structure questions in general terms.", "family": "Thing Registry", "category": "Society, people and institutions", "status": "research-draft", "kind": "thing", "plane": "SOC", "domain": "SOC.ORG", "industry": "", "version": "", "url": "/models/thing/q658255/", "tier": 2, "score": 62, "payload": { "layer": "wikidata", "aliases": [ "Nestlé India", "nonoperating subsidiary", "Nestle España", "Aguas Danone SA", "foreign subsidiary company", "indirect subsidiary", "consolidated subsidiary", "Volkswagen (China) Investment Co., Ltd.", "ABC Heinz Indonesia", "Yamaha Drums", "Borden Dairy Company", "Carr's", "wholly owned subsidiary", "Servicios Lógisticos Ferroviarios S.A.", "Merv Griffin Enterprises", "Mitchell & Ness", "operating subsidiary", "Scott's Porage Oats", "Snyder's-Lance", "Avalon Hill", "Touchstone Television" ], "aliasCount": 21, "merged": 21, "knownIn": 62, "facets": null, "markers": [], "lexicalClass": "", "senseRank": null, "alsoRegisteredAs": null, "source": { "dataset": "wikidata", "item": "Q658255", "url": "https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q658255", "license": "CC0 1.0" } }, "research": { "vercy": "1.0-draft", "publication": { "status": "research-draft", "adjudicationStatus": "unreviewed", "publishableCanonical": false, "generatedAt": "2026-09-11T23:30:49Z", "providers": [ "Claude" ], "breadth": "written by Claude from model knowledge without web access - no source was read, every claim is a lead to verify", "pass": 2, "wave": 2, "engine": "claude" }, "metaModel": { "id": "THING-Q658255", "registryId": "vr.tr.subsidiary-company", "name": "subsidiary company", "version": "0.2.0-wave.2", "entryKind": "thing", "family": "Thing Registry", "domain": [ "SOC.ORG" ], "status": "research-draft" }, "canonicalUrl": "https://ver.cy/models/thing/q658255/", "model": { "registry_id": "vr.tr.subsidiary-company", "name": "subsidiary company", "purpose": "Let an agent explain subsidiaries and their legal and accounting treatment, identify specific subsidiaries and parents with sources, describe why groups use subsidiaries, and support corporate structure questions in general terms.", "definition": "A company controlled by another company, the parent, through ownership of a majority of shares or voting rights, including wholly and partly owned subsidiaries, foreign subsidiaries, indirect subsidiaries held through other subsidiaries and non-operating subsidiaries, such as national units of multinational groups; subsidiaries are separate legal entities with their own liabilities and are consolidated in group accounts.", "what_it_is_for": "Companies controlled by parent companies.", "affordances": [ "explain subsidiary structures", "identify subsidiaries and parents", "describe legal and accounting treatment", "explain why groups use subsidiaries" ], "distinguishing_features": [ "Parent control", "Separate legal personality", "Consolidated accounts", "Group structures" ], "appearance": "Not physical; corporate entities in group structures.", "visual_identification": [ "Controlled by a parent company", "Separate legal entity", "A branch is not a separate legal entity; an associate is not controlled" ], "physical_properties": [], "families_and_kinds": [ "wholly owned subsidiaries", "partly owned subsidiaries", "foreign subsidiaries", "indirect subsidiaries", "non-operating and holding subsidiaries" ], "related_models": [ { "relation": "is a kind of", "target": "company", "why": "category" }, { "relation": "is a kind of", "target": "organizational unit", "why": "category" }, { "relation": "is related to", "target": "partnership", "why": "other business structures" }, { "relation": "is related to", "target": "publishing house", "why": "imprints as subsidiaries" } ], "identifiers": [], "standards_and_regulation": [ "Company law on control and group structures", "Consolidation rules in accounting standards", "Tax and transfer pricing rules" ], "failure_modes_and_hazards": [ "Liability shielding abuses", "Opaque ownership", "Agents giving legal or tax advice" ], "in_scope": [], "out_of_scope": [], "characteristics": [] }, "sources": [], "structure": { "bundles": [ { "id": "understand", "name": "Understand", "description": "What a subsidiary is.", "rationale": "Concepts.", "layers": [ { "id": "definition", "name": "Definition", "description": "Definition and control.", "findings": [ { "id": "definition-finding", "name": "Definition", "description": "Definition.", "questions": [ { "text": "What makes a company a subsidiary, and how do wholly owned, partly owned, indirect and foreign subsidiaries differ?", "kind": "definition" }, { "text": "How does a subsidiary differ from a branch, division or associate?", "kind": "definition" } ] } ] }, { "id": "specific", "name": "Specific", "description": "A specific subsidiary.", "findings": [ { "id": "specific-finding", "name": "Specific", "description": "Specific subsidiary.", "questions": [ { "text": "Who is the parent of this company, and what does it do, according to company registers and reports?", "kind": "provenance" }, { "text": "Which entry fits it?", "kind": "action" } ] } ] } ] }, { "id": "why", "name": "Why", "description": "Why groups use subsidiaries.", "rationale": "Rationale.", "layers": [ { "id": "reasons", "name": "Reasons", "description": "Reasons.", "findings": [ { "id": "reasons-finding", "name": "Reasons", "description": "Reasons.", "questions": [ { "text": "Why do companies create subsidiaries, such as for liability, regulation, tax, local operations and acquisitions?", "kind": "definition" }, { "text": "What are non-operating subsidiaries for?", "kind": "definition" } ] } ] }, { "id": "risks", "name": "Risks", "description": "Risks and abuses.", "findings": [ { "id": "risks-finding", "name": "Risks", "description": "Risks.", "questions": [ { "text": "What are documented risks and abuses of subsidiary structures, and how do laws address them?", "kind": "provenance" }, { "text": "What is piercing the corporate veil?", "kind": "definition" } ] } ] } ] }, { "id": "rules", "name": "Rules", "description": "Law and accounting.", "rationale": "Regulation.", "layers": [ { "id": "law", "name": "Law", "description": "Company law.", "findings": [ { "id": "law-finding", "name": "Law", "description": "Company law.", "questions": [ { "text": "How does company law treat subsidiaries, control and group liability here?", "kind": "provenance" }, { "text": "Is the user seeking legal advice on a specific structure?", "kind": "boundary" } ] } ] }, { "id": "accounting", "name": "Accounting", "description": "Consolidation.", "findings": [ { "id": "accounting-finding", "name": "Accounting", "description": "Accounting.", "questions": [ { "text": "How are subsidiaries consolidated in group accounts, and what disclosures are required?", "kind": "provenance" }, { "text": "How do transfer pricing rules apply?", "kind": "provenance" } ] } ] } ] }, { "id": "learn", "name": "Learn", "description": "Research and teaching.", "rationale": "Context.", "layers": [ { "id": "research", "name": "Research", "description": "Researching ownership.", "findings": [ { "id": "research-finding", "name": "Research", "description": "Research.", "questions": [ { "text": "How can corporate ownership chains be researched through registers and beneficial ownership data?", "kind": "action" }, { "text": "Which registers are available here?", "kind": "provenance" } ] } ] }, { "id": "teach", "name": "Teach", "description": "Teaching.", "findings": [ { "id": "teach-finding", "name": "Teach", "description": "Teaching.", "questions": [ { "text": "How can group structures be taught in company law and accounting?", "kind": "action" }, { "text": "Which misconceptions arise?", "kind": "provenance" } ] } ] } ] } ] }, "openQuestions": [ "Should each corporate group be a separate entry?", "How should company registers be linked?", "How should consolidation rules be linked?" ], "statistics": { "bundles": 4, "layers": 8, "findings": 8, "questions": 16 } }, "draft": { "generator": "vr.draft.v3", "status": "draft-generated", "researched": false, "archetype": "organisation or institution", "method": "Written from the archetype playbook - what this kind of thing needs beyond identity and provenance - and from the structure that recurred across 6,333 models already researched by two engines. Applied to this entry by rule. No source was read for this thing and no claim here is researched. This entry carries no facets of its own, so they were inferred from its domain - a guess about a whole domain applied to one thing.", "facetsInferred": true, "nextPass": "A researcher replaces this draft with a sourced specification. Treat every sentence below as a proposal to argue with.", "purpose": "Give an agent a durable, checkable way to recognise a subsidiary company, record what state it is in, and decide what may be done with it.", "whatItIs": "Let an agent explain subsidiaries and their legal and accounting treatment, identify specific subsidiaries and parents with sources, describe why groups use subsidiaries, and support corporate structure questions in general terms.", "characteristics": { "substance": "social", "origin": "conceptual", "agency": "collective" }, "whatYouCanDoWithIt": [ "observed and measured" ], "distinguishingFeatures": [ "Names folded into this entry, which a task may need to split apart again: Nestlé India, nonoperating subsidiary, Nestle España, Aguas Danone SA, foreign subsidiary company, indirect subsidiary, consolidated subsidiary, Volkswagen (China) Investment Co., Ltd., ABC Heinz Indonesia, Yamaha Drums, Borden Dairy Company, Carr's.", "21 finer distinctions are held as aliases rather than separate entries, because telling them apart needs a task that asks for it.", "Described in 62 Wikipedia languages, which is a measure of how widely the thing is known, not of how important it is." ], "openQuestionsForResearch": [ "Which of the bundles below does a real task actually need, and which are ceremony?", "What does this thing have that the facets do not capture at all?", "Which neighbouring kind is most often confused with a subsidiary company, and on what evidence are they told apart?" ], "whatItIsMadeOf": "a social arrangement between people", "physicalCharacter": [ "Acts through people, and only through them.", "These come from the domain this entry sits in rather than from the entry itself, so treat them as a first guess about the whole domain applied to one thing." ], "whatCanBeDoneWithIt": [ "observe it, measure it, record its state" ], "howItIsRecognised": [ "Nothing to see. Recognised by name, register entry and the people acting in its name, and those change while it stays the same body." ], "relatedModels": [ { "relation": "covers", "note": "Finer kinds folded into this entry because telling them apart needs a task that asks for it. Each is a model waiting to be split out when one does.", "targets": [ "Nestlé India", "nonoperating subsidiary", "Nestle España", "Aguas Danone SA", "foreign subsidiary company", "indirect subsidiary", "consolidated subsidiary", "Volkswagen (China) Investment Co., Ltd.", "ABC Heinz Indonesia", "Yamaha Drums", "Borden Dairy Company", "Carr's" ] } ], "standing": "Described in 62 Wikipedia languages, which measures how widely it is written about rather than how important or how common it is. 21 finer distinctions are held inside this entry as names rather than as separate models.", "structure": { "bundles": [ { "id": "identity-and-classification", "name": "Identity, naming and classification", "description": "How an agent tells one subsidiary company from another, and a subsidiary company from things that resemble it.", "rationale": "Recognition comes before every other claim. Without stable identity nothing else in the model can be trusted to be about the same thing twice.", "layers": [ { "id": "naming-and-identifiers", "name": "Names and identifiers", "description": "The names this thing goes by and the identifiers that survive translation and time.", "findings": [ { "id": "preferred-name-and-aliases", "name": "Preferred name, aliases and local names", "description": "Which name to use, which names mean the same thing, and which merely sound similar.", "questions": [ { "id": "preferred-name-and-aliases-q01", "text": "What identifies and describes the name of a subsidiary company, and in what units or vocabulary?", "kind": "definition", "answer_data": [ "identifiers", "types and classes", "values with units", "explicit unknowns" ] }, { "id": "preferred-name-and-aliases-q02", "text": "Who or what asserted this about the name of a subsidiary company, by which method, and when was it true?", "kind": "provenance", "answer_data": [ "authority", "method", "evidence", "event time", "knowledge time" ] }, { "id": "preferred-name-and-aliases-q03", "text": "What may an agent decide or do once the name of a subsidiary company is known, and what must it refuse?", "kind": "action", "answer_data": [ "permitted actions", "preconditions", "refusals", "escalation" ] } ] }, { "id": "stable-identifiers", "name": "Stable identifiers and external keys", "description": "Identifiers that keep pointing at this kind of thing across systems and languages.", "questions": [ { "id": "stable-identifiers-q01", "text": "What identifies and describes an identifier for a subsidiary company, and in what units or vocabulary?", "kind": "definition", "answer_data": [ "identifiers", "types and classes", "values with units", "explicit unknowns" ] }, { "id": "stable-identifiers-q02", "text": "Who or what asserted this about an identifier for a subsidiary company, by which method, and when was it true?", "kind": "provenance", "answer_data": [ "authority", "method", "evidence", "event time", "knowledge time" ] }, { "id": "stable-identifiers-q03", "text": "What may an agent decide or do once an identifier for a subsidiary company is known, and what must it refuse?", "kind": "action", "answer_data": [ "permitted actions", "preconditions", "refusals", "escalation" ] } ] } ] }, { "id": "classification-and-granularity", "name": "Classification and granularity", "description": "Where a subsidiary company sits among kinds, and how finely a task needs to cut it.", "findings": [ { "id": "kind-and-parents", "name": "Kind, parents and neighbouring kinds", "description": "The classes this thing belongs to and the ones it is next to.", "questions": [ { "id": "kind-and-parents-q01", "text": "What identifies and describes the kind of a subsidiary company, and in what units or vocabulary?", "kind": "definition", "answer_data": [ "identifiers", "types and classes", "values with units", "explicit unknowns" ] }, { "id": "kind-and-parents-q02", "text": "Who or what asserted this about the kind of a subsidiary company, by which method, and when was it true?", "kind": "provenance", "answer_data": [ "authority", "method", "evidence", "event time", "knowledge time" ] }, { "id": "kind-and-parents-q03", "text": "What may an agent decide or do once the kind of a subsidiary company is known, and what must it refuse?", "kind": "action", "answer_data": [ "permitted actions", "preconditions", "refusals", "escalation" ] } ] }, { "id": "distinguishing-features", "name": "Distinguishing features", "description": "What separates a subsidiary company from the things most often confused with it.", "questions": [ { "id": "distinguishing-features-q01", "text": "What identifies and describes what distinguishes a subsidiary company, and in what units or vocabulary?", "kind": "definition", "answer_data": [ "identifiers", "types and classes", "values with units", "explicit unknowns" ] }, { "id": "distinguishing-features-q02", "text": "Who or what asserted this about what distinguishes a subsidiary company, by which method, and when was it true?", "kind": "provenance", "answer_data": [ "authority", "method", "evidence", "event time", "knowledge time" ] }, { "id": "distinguishing-features-q03", "text": "What may an agent decide or do once what distinguishes a subsidiary company is known, and what must it refuse?", "kind": "action", "answer_data": [ "permitted actions", "preconditions", "refusals", "escalation" ] } ] } ] } ] }, { "id": "state-and-lifecycle", "name": "State and lifecycle", "description": "The states a subsidiary company passes through and the events that move it between them.", "rationale": "Most decisions about a thing depend on what state it is in now, which is a claim with a time on it, not a property.", "layers": [ { "id": "lifecycle-stages", "name": "Lifecycle stages", "description": "From coming into existence to ceasing to be one of these.", "findings": [ { "id": "stages-and-transitions", "name": "Stages and transitions", "description": "The stages worth naming and what moves a subsidiary company between them.", "questions": [ { "id": "stages-and-transitions-q01", "text": "What identifies and describes the lifecycle of a subsidiary company, and in what units or vocabulary?", "kind": "definition", "answer_data": [ "identifiers", "types and classes", "values with units", "explicit unknowns" ] }, { "id": "stages-and-transitions-q02", "text": "Who or what asserted this about the lifecycle of a subsidiary company, by which method, and when was it true?", "kind": "provenance", "answer_data": [ "authority", "method", "evidence", "event time", "knowledge time" ] }, { "id": "stages-and-transitions-q03", "text": "What may an agent decide or do once the lifecycle of a subsidiary company is known, and what must it refuse?", "kind": "action", "answer_data": [ "permitted actions", "preconditions", "refusals", "escalation" ] } ] } ] }, { "id": "observations-and-status", "name": "Observations and current status", "description": "What is observed about a subsidiary company, how often and by whom.", "findings": [ { "id": "observation-record", "name": "Observation record", "description": "How an observation of a subsidiary company is recorded so that it can be superseded rather than overwritten.", "questions": [ { "id": "observation-record-q01", "text": "What identifies and describes an observation of a subsidiary company, and in what units or vocabulary?", "kind": "definition", "answer_data": [ "identifiers", "types and classes", "values with units", "explicit unknowns" ] }, { "id": "observation-record-q02", "text": "Who or what asserted this about an observation of a subsidiary company, by which method, and when was it true?", "kind": "provenance", "answer_data": [ "authority", "method", "evidence", "event time", "knowledge time" ] }, { "id": "observation-record-q03", "text": "What may an agent decide or do once an observation of a subsidiary company is known, and what must it refuse?", "kind": "action", "answer_data": [ "permitted actions", "preconditions", "refusals", "escalation" ] } ] } ] } ] }, { "id": "people-and-responsibility", "name": "People, roles and responsibility", "description": "Who stands in what relation to a subsidiary company.", "rationale": "Social things are defined by the relations people hold to them, and those relations change without the thing changing.", "layers": [ { "id": "roles-and-parties", "name": "Roles and parties", "description": "The roles that exist around a subsidiary company and who fills them.", "findings": [ { "id": "role-assignments", "name": "Role assignments and their validity", "description": "Who holds which role over a subsidiary company, from when, and on whose authority.", "questions": [ { "id": "role-assignments-q01", "text": "What identifies and describes a role over a subsidiary company, and in what units or vocabulary?", "kind": "definition", "answer_data": [ "identifiers", "types and classes", "values with units", "explicit unknowns" ] }, { "id": "role-assignments-q02", "text": "Who or what asserted this about a role over a subsidiary company, by which method, and when was it true?", "kind": "provenance", "answer_data": [ "authority", "method", "evidence", "event time", "knowledge time" ] }, { "id": "role-assignments-q03", "text": "What may an agent decide or do once a role over a subsidiary company is known, and what must it refuse?", "kind": "action", "answer_data": [ "permitted actions", "preconditions", "refusals", "escalation" ] } ] } ] }, { "id": "ownership-and-accountability", "name": "Ownership and accountability", "description": "Who answers for a subsidiary company and who may decide about it.", "findings": [ { "id": "accountability", "name": "Accountability and decision rights", "description": "Where responsibility for a subsidiary company sits when something goes wrong.", "questions": [ { "id": "accountability-q01", "text": "What identifies and describes responsibility for a subsidiary company, and in what units or vocabulary?", "kind": "definition", "answer_data": [ "identifiers", "types and classes", "values with units", "explicit unknowns" ] }, { "id": "accountability-q02", "text": "Who or what asserted this about responsibility for a subsidiary company, by which method, and when was it true?", "kind": "provenance", "answer_data": [ "authority", "method", "evidence", "event time", "knowledge time" ] }, { "id": "accountability-q03", "text": "What may an agent decide or do once responsibility for a subsidiary company is known, and what must it refuse?", "kind": "action", "answer_data": [ "permitted actions", "preconditions", "refusals", "escalation" ] } ] } ] } ] }, { "id": "legal-identity", "name": "Legal identity and mandate", "description": "What subsidiary company is in law and what it exists to do.", "rationale": "Legal identity survives changes of name, address, staff and premises, which is exactly why it must be recorded separately from all of them.", "layers": [ { "id": "registration", "name": "Legal form and registration", "description": "Form, register, identifiers and jurisdiction.", "findings": [ { "id": "registration-record", "name": "Registration and identifiers", "description": "What names this body unambiguously in law.", "questions": [ { "id": "registration-record-q01", "text": "What legal form does subsidiary company take, in which register, under which identifier?", "kind": "definition" }, { "id": "registration-record-q02", "text": "What survives a rename, a merger or a move of premises, and what does not?", "kind": "boundary" } ] } ] }, { "id": "mandate", "name": "Mandate and governing instrument", "description": "The purpose it is bound to and the document that binds it.", "findings": [ { "id": "mandate-record", "name": "Mandate and its source", "description": "What it may do, and the instrument that says so.", "questions": [ { "id": "mandate-record-q01", "text": "What is the mandate of subsidiary company, and which founding or governing instrument grants it?", "kind": "provenance" }, { "id": "mandate-record-q02", "text": "What lies outside the mandate, and what should an agent do when asked for it?", "kind": "action" } ] } ] } ] }, { "id": "governance-and-membership", "name": "Governance, membership and decision rights", "description": "Who decides in subsidiary company and who belongs to it.", "rationale": "Authority inside an organisation is held by roles, not people, and an agent needs to know which role can commit it.", "layers": [ { "id": "decision-rights", "name": "Decision rights", "description": "Bodies, offices and what each may bind.", "findings": [ { "id": "authority-map", "name": "Who may bind the organisation", "description": "The offices that can commit it and their limits.", "questions": [ { "id": "authority-map-q01", "text": "Which bodies or offices of subsidiary company may take which decisions, and up to what limit?", "kind": "definition" }, { "id": "authority-map-q02", "text": "What evidence shows that a given person currently holds that office?", "kind": "provenance" } ] } ] }, { "id": "membership", "name": "Membership and affiliation", "description": "Who counts as part of it and on what terms.", "findings": [ { "id": "membership-rules", "name": "Membership and its evidence", "description": "Classes of member, how membership starts and ends.", "questions": [ { "id": "membership-rules-q01", "text": "What kinds of membership or affiliation does subsidiary company have, and how does each begin and end?", "kind": "definition" }, { "id": "membership-rules-q02", "text": "What may a member do in its name, and what may they not?", "kind": "action" } ] } ] } ] }, { "id": "provenance-and-evidence", "name": "Provenance, evidence and time", "description": "Where every claim about a subsidiary company came from and when it held.", "rationale": "A claim without a source and a time cannot be superseded, only overwritten, and an agent that overwrites loses the ability to explain itself.", "layers": [ { "id": "source-and-authority", "name": "Source and authority", "description": "Who said it, on what evidence, and how strongly.", "findings": [ { "id": "claim-provenance", "name": "Claim provenance and confidence", "description": "The authority behind each claim about a subsidiary company and how confident it is.", "questions": [ { "id": "claim-provenance-q01", "text": "What identifies and describes a claim about a subsidiary company, and in what units or vocabulary?", "kind": "definition", "answer_data": [ "identifiers", "types and classes", "values with units", "explicit unknowns" ] }, { "id": "claim-provenance-q02", "text": "Who or what asserted this about a claim about a subsidiary company, by which method, and when was it true?", "kind": "provenance", "answer_data": [ "authority", "method", "evidence", "event time", "knowledge time" ] }, { "id": "claim-provenance-q03", "text": "What may an agent decide or do once a claim about a subsidiary company is known, and what must it refuse?", "kind": "action", "answer_data": [ "permitted actions", "preconditions", "refusals", "escalation" ] } ] } ] }, { "id": "time-and-versions", "name": "Time, versions and supersession", "description": "When a claim was true, when it was learnt, and what replaced it.", "findings": [ { "id": "validity-and-supersession", "name": "Validity period and supersession", "description": "How an old claim about a subsidiary company is retired without being erased.", "questions": [ { "id": "validity-and-supersession-q01", "text": "What identifies and describes the validity of a claim about a subsidiary company, and in what units or vocabulary?", "kind": "definition", "answer_data": [ "identifiers", "types and classes", "values with units", "explicit unknowns" ] }, { "id": "validity-and-supersession-q02", "text": "Who or what asserted this about the validity of a claim about a subsidiary company, by which method, and when was it true?", "kind": "provenance", "answer_data": [ "authority", "method", "evidence", "event time", "knowledge time" ] }, { "id": "validity-and-supersession-q03", "text": "What may an agent decide or do once the validity of a claim about a subsidiary company is known, and what must it refuse?", "kind": "action", "answer_data": [ "permitted actions", "preconditions", "refusals", "escalation" ] } ] } ] } ] } ] }, "statistics": { "bundles": 6, "layers": 12, "findings": 14, "questions": 38 } } } }