ABSTRACT
The purpose of this research is to explore how practices are interpreted differently across the foreign subsidiaries of a Japanese MNC. An institutional logic approach was adopted, with a focus on the constellations of logics. Categories of practices across the subsidiaries of JapanCo emerged inductively through a quasi-ethnographic study. These practices relate to customer development, work and employment, and work organisation. The key findings of the study concern the relevance of culture, context and ceremonial features for the operation of institutional logics. The significance of culture is appreciated, chiefly through cooperative relationships, but especially among the family and religion logics. The significance of context is assessed through the competitive relationships among contextual enactments of logics. Finally, ceremonial aspects are illuminated through cooperative as well as competitive logics. Each finding is elaborated as follows.
