several practices available for combination, hence several ways to contextualize a foreign
practice. We need a finer resolution to explain the particular shape that a business practice
takes during a transfer. This insight may explain why some transfers between dissimilar
societies succeed while others fail. It may also enable managers to transfer practices more
effectively across dissimilar societies.
We propose to investigate this gap in the literature through an empirical study of
contextualization, conducted at the micro-level of analysis. Our aim is to obtain detailed
insight into the process of contextualization, and, by doing so, to capture the role of
individuals in the contextualization process. The empirical study explores the range of
strategies that individuals deploy to contextualize a business practice that has been transferred
from a dissimilar society. Since more contextualization is required of individuals when they
transfer practices across dissimilar societies, more insight can potentially be gained from
studying transfers between dissimilar societies. Our study is thus designed to addresses an
important limitation in previous research on cross-national transfers.
METHODS
The object of transfer
The object of transfer is that of Socially Responsible Investment (SRI). SRI represents a
contemporary case of transfer, which permits data collection on individual perceptions and
strategies while they are still fresh in the minds of informants. SRI refers to “a set of
approaches which include social or ethical goals or constraints as well as more conventional
criteria in decisions over whether to acquire, hold or dispose of a particular investment”
(Cowton 1999: 60; d’Antonio et al. 1998). As a practice, SRI refers to the assessment that
financial investors make on the social responsibility of corporations. This assessment relies on