Faculty of Business Seminar Series / Şükrü Özen

Title : Diffusion of Imported Management Practices within Late-Industrializing Countries.

Abstract : This paper advances a framework for understanding diffusion of imported
management practices within late-industrializing recipient countries by drawing upon prior
research addressing the Turkish context. By doing so, the paper aims at expanding current
models of diffusion, which typically address processes that unfold within early-industrialized
source countries. Considering the Turkish case, we argue that diffusion of an imported
practice in a recipient country may systematically demarcate from its diffusion in its source
country due to the strong emulation of modern practices, local elites engagement in importing
of practices, and well-established nature of practices imported to the recipient context. These
factors endow the imported practice with initial sociopolitical support, which in turn shapes
three fundamental aspects of diffusion, namely, time of adoption, motivations for adoption,
and implementation patterns. We first propose that elite organizations in Turkey tend to be
early adopters of imported practices, whereas peripheral organizations tend to be late adopters.
We secondly suggest that early-adopting elite organizations are likely to be motivated more
strongly by perceived legitimacy gains of adoption whereas late-adopting peripheral
organizations are driven predominantly by economic motivations. Thirdly, we contend that
early-adopting elite organizations are more likely to implement high fidelity versions of
imported practices whereas late-adopting peripheral organizations engage in low-fidelity
implementation. Finally, we expect a widespread decoupling across both early- and lateadopters,
however, early-adopting elite organizations engage in unintentional decoupling
whereas late-adopting peripheral ones engage in intentional decoupling. We argue our
framework enriches extant literature by emphasizing sociopolitical rather than cognitive
legitimacy, which accounts for reversal of the usually suggested motivational pattern as well
as widespread decoupling and the possibility of deinstitutionalization accompanying diffusion.

Place : AB2- Meeting Room 345