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INTRODUCTION
Institutional theory has become a dominant lens in the theoretical framing of research into the diffusion of management innovations (Strang & Meyer, 1993; Djelic, 1998; Strang & Soule, 1998; Campbell, 2004; Djelic & Sahlin-Andersson, 2006; Ansari, Fiss, & Zajac, 2010). Institutional studies of innovation are often focused on organizational fields, analysing change at a local or industry level, usually within the boundaries of a single nation. Yet, institutional processes are not bounded by nation states and often travel beyond their boundaries such that, today, most spheres of activity are enmeshed in transnational dynamics and influences (Djelic & Quack, 2003; see also Drori, Meyer, & Hwang, 2006). Horizons of action and meaning are increasingly global as interdependencies increase and cultural waves break internationally (Djelic & Quack, 2003; Kostova, Roth, & Dacin, 2008; Drori, Höllerer, & Walgenbach, 2014; Logue, 2014).
Ideas travel. As they travel they are translated. Empirically, we examine the translation of the German organizational form of Mittelstand over the period 2002-2012, specifically in the Australian context, as part of a search for solutions for a declining manufacturing sector. Squeezed between a high-value currency as a result of its 'safe haven' status and the pressure on input costs that this creates, as well as labour market pressures from a resources boom in minerals destined primarily for China, Australian manufacturing searches for new solutions. One mooted possibility is the Mittelstand, described in the Financial Times as 'a model that everyone wants' (Bryant, 2012), widely seen as having enabled Germany not only to withstand much of the global financial crisis' (GFC) aftermath, but also to position it for sustainable growth. Can this widely admired model be copied by other nations (it has garnered attention in the United Kingdom, United States, Australia, China and elsewhere), given the specificity of its values and embeddedness? Consideration of this empirical case of transnational theorization and translation of the Mittelstand from Bavaria to Geelong is the topic of this paper. Thus, we ask two related research questions: what do conceptual stage models of translation reveal about how a fully institutionalized local organizational model, such as the Mittelstand, might translate to a completely different local context? What happens when the value orientations of globally theorized models are developed into localized templates?