| Replication of organizational routines is one important mechanism for organizations to create competitive advantage across geographically dispersed units. Studies to date have explored whether replication happens and the main barriers for the transfer of practices, but the evolution of transfer processes in the recipient organizations---in other words, how organizational members receive and put into use the knowledge that is being transferred---is still unexplored. Through a one year ethnography of the setting up of a new automotive plant, this dissertation describes and conceptualizes the processes through which practices are transferred to new settings.;Transfer happens through a structuration-type process where the replication pressures coming from the parent organization are recreated in the new setting as organizational members learn their tasks and develop routines that facilitate their work. Failures and ambiguity in the transfer process provide room for local interpretation and trigger higher-order learning efforts that help members understand causal relationships and adapt practices to the local characteristics. As a result, most routines are re-created locally, reflecting a mix of regulative and normative pressures coming from the parent organization and locally developed cultural-cognitive elements.;By detailing the processes of transfer of routines and the links between learning processes and routine formation, the dissertation advances the understanding of replication practices and highlights the importance of the ramp-up phase of the transfer. |
