The Embeddedness of Management Ideas: A Comparative Case Study of Agile Organisations in China and Sweden

Abstract Management ideas, comprising principles and practices for optimising organisational resources, drive organisational change and are increasingly a global phenomena. However, their translation into different geographical contexts remains poorly understood. This study explores how the embeddedness of actors influences the translation of management ideas, using Agile software development as a case. Agile has rapidly become a widely adopted management idea in the IT industry that emphasises flexibility, iterative development, and customer collaboration. This research uses a comparative case study of two geographically distinct R&D sites of a transnational corporation in China and Sweden. It draws on interviews and ethnographic observations to explore how Agile was translated into these local contexts. The findings reveal how the idea of Agile management is shaped by the embeddedness of the actors implementing it. The study contributes to the debate on the geography of the firm by providing insights into how the embeddedness of actors shapes management ideas.