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Institutional Translation Gone Wrong: The Case of Villages For Africa in Rural Tanzania

Claus, L; Greenwood, R; Mgoo, J; (2020) Institutional Translation Gone Wrong: The Case of Villages For Africa in Rural Tanzania. Academy of Management Journal , 64 (5) 10.5465/amj.2017.1089. Green open access

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Abstract

Why do ideas that have been successfully moved across highly different contexts subsequently fail? To answer this question, we use longitudinal data on the Dutch organization Villages for Africa that introduced ‘macro-credit’ loans to rural Tanzanians that would enable them to establish their own village enterprises. Only two years after the seemingly successful implementation of the idea, it collapsed. Our findings allow us to make two key contributions. First, we provide a process model of high-distance translation that shows how proponents can strategically introduce an idea across highly different contexts by ‘culturally detaching’ it from its institutional origins, leading to the idea being ‘culturally assimilated’ into the recipient context. But, although cultural detachment and cultural assimilation indicate the successful translation of an idea, the means of doing so can later prompt its rejection. We call this the reactance effect of translations across highly different contexts. Second, we showcase the role of history for translation theory more generally. History – particularly the historical relationship between the socio-cultural categories of the mzungu (Swahili: “foreigner”) and the villagers – influenced the way in which the macro-credit idea could be introduced to villagers and played a key role in its subsequent rejection.

Type: Article
Title: Institutional Translation Gone Wrong: The Case of Villages For Africa in Rural Tanzania
Open access status: An open access version is available from UCL Discovery
DOI: 10.5465/amj.2017.1089
Publisher version: https://doi.org/10.5465/amj.2017.1089
Language: English
Additional information: This version is the author accepted manuscript. For information on re-use, please refer to the publisher's terms and conditions.
Keywords: social innovation, social entrepreneurship, grand challenges, macro-credits
URI: https://discovery.ucl.ac.uk/id/eprint/10104339
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