of human agency and deliberate action. We also propose additional research on
contextualization strategies. For instance, it would be interesting to investigate which
contextualization strategies are best suited for a given stage of translation and/or a given
practice, and whether the same contextualization strategies apply to diffusion within the host
society. Future studies could draw on the repertoire of micro-strategies to examine how a
transferred business practice is subsequently re-contextualized by other actors in the host
society.
Translation
Translation studies are conducted within Actor-Network-Theory and New Institutional
Theory, sometimes combined under the label of Scandinavian Institutionalism. Translation
studies look at changes that a business practice undergoes when it is implemented in another
institutional structure. These changes occur although organizations try to imitate each other by
importing practices from similar societies (Strang & Meyer 1994; Sahlin-Anderson 1996).
Imitation is also facilitated by the use of ready-to-imitate packaging that is associated with
valued ideas and successful settings, e.g., in the form of ‘best practices’ (R0vik 1996).
Unchanged form may hold true at the discursive level, but practices tend to change once they
are implemented in new institutional structures. Sahlin-Anderson (1996) explains, for
instance, that “there are no ready-made models which remain unchanged as they spread” (p.
81) and that “individuals may imitate some elements of foreign business practices and not
others, forming and transforming ideas and experiences as they are transferred” (p. 48).
Empirical studies lend support to her suggestions (Boxenbaum 2006; Lippi 2000).
Among the different translation models (e.g., Campbell 2004; Czarniawska & Joerges
1996), the most detailed is probably Sahlin-Anderson’s (2001) model of editing. She proposes
three three editing rules to facilitate the export of a local practice, namely context, logic and
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