Reimagining That Translators and Translations Make a Difference

Abstract

AbstractThis chapter returns to the puzzles that sparked this book project: The numerous observations of variations in outcomes, successes, and failures, following attempts to transfer knowledge across organizational borders. How can such variations be interpreted and explained? Partly in contrast to the dominant barrier approach in knowledge transfer studies, this chapter develops the translation approach to understanding and explaining variations in knowledge transfer processes and outcomes. This is done by elaborating the third key argument upon which the translation theory is founded; that is, that translators and their translations make a difference. The ways in which translations are performed may explain outcomes of knowledge transfer processes. The influence of translators on processes and outcomes is illustrated through six knowledge transfer cases, each of which takes place in different contexts: the United States, Norway, Denmark, China, the United Kingdom, and India.