line of research explains that business practices change form to fit the production regime in
the receiving society when they are transferred across varieties of capitalism or business
systems. The reason is that “the systemic character of institutions in advanced industrial
societies forces institutional innovations and transfers to be organized so that they fit the
broader institutional order” (Casper & Hancké 1999, 963). National institutions, particularly
the economic structures, are therefore considered determinant for shaping a transferred
business practice. There is some, though limited, recognition that individuals contribute to
transfers as well. For instance, actors outside the state structure sponsor or pull in a foreign
practice because they see unexpected opportunities that suit their own material or moral ends
(Jacoby 2000: 20-21). They use various power resources available to them to do so (Casper &
Hancké 1999: 962). For instance, individuals engage in selective emulation when they
“choose not to adopt certain features of the original model because they conflict with local
patterns” or when they try to legitimize changes in the host society by transferring only
desired features of a foreign business practice (Westney 1987: 27). They engage in
hybridization when they combine a foreign practice with local elements to make the transfer
meaningful or legitimate in the host society (Pieterse 1994).
The two strategies of selective emulation and hybridization are both embraced within
the repertoire of micro-strategies that we identified. Our contribution to the literature on
institutional transfers is a detailed description of the work that individuals engage in at a
micro-level of analysis, combined with a more exhaustive and refined repertoire of how to
transfer practices across varieties of capitalism or business systems. The five micro-strategies
that we identified are fully compatible with varieties of capitalism and business systems
theory, but point to the need for research on the role of individuals in institutional transfers
(see also Tempel & Walgenbach, forthcoming). Future research may investigate the
construction of Varieties of Capitalism from the bottom-up to explain why divergent business
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