The Role of Individual Boundary Spanners in the Global Transfer of Practices

In this study, we have explored boundary spanning roles, and associated behaviors, in the transfer of practices. Using 20 months of ethnographic data, our study illustrates the importance of transformative and transactive boundary spanning behaviors in the transfer of practice. As highlighted by the cases of individuals who exhibited primarily transactive or nearly exclusively transformative boundary spanning, a single form of boundary spanning alone was not adequate. Theoretically, by comparing various individuals across sites, we are able to identify the roles and associated behaviors of individuals that effectively transfer practices. These findings speak to the fact that not only do practices need to transform as they are transferred, but also that practices must be enacted repeatedly and cannot simply be transferred as abstract knowledge.