Best practice? Geography, learning and the institutional limits to strong convergence

Top Cited Papers
Publisher Website
Google Scholar
Abstract
According to many, we live in an age in which convergence between formerly distinct national ‘models’ is taking place. Central to this process is a learning dynamic in which best practices originating from within one model—Japan in the 1980s, United States in the 1990s—are supposedly adopted by firms elsewhere. This paper addresses two key questions concerning this process. First, what are the actual mechanisms or processes through which this learning-driven convergence might occur? Second, what role do institutions play in shaping, influencing, or constraining firms' choice of practices and their ability to ‘learn’? The paper examines eight specific channels of convergence representing a continuum of opportunities for learning-through-interacting. It then assesses critically a range of competing arguments about the role of institutional influences at three different scales: the region, the nation-state, and the firm. It concludes that while regional and firm-level arguments, on their own, do not provide an adequate explanatory framework for understanding how firms' practices are determined, national level theory needs to be made supple enough to accommodate a significant role for regional institutions and the agency of the firm.

This publication has 0 references indexed in Scilit: