Bringing context and structure back into situated learning
研究了制度与组织结构如何影响跨国企业子公司的参与模式和学习成果，通过比较案例发现，尽管结构因素重要，但行动者能在条件不协调时主动创造解决方案。
Practice-based studies have progressed thinking in the knowledge, learning and innovation fields by emphasizing the continual negotiation of social structures and meaning through participation. Yet, only a few contributions discuss how participation and learning are affected by broader structures. This is an inconsistency in the understanding of ‘situated’ learning where learning through participation is restricted to the immediate community involved in a social activity. We aim to address this inconsistency by investigating the effects of the interplay between institutional and organizational structures on patterns of participation and, in turn, learning outcomes. We develop a framework of situated learning in multinational enterprises, and explore its value through a comparative case study of the introduction of new practices in four subsidiaries of two multinational enterprises in two contrasting national institutional systems.In contrast to older views, our case findings suggest that while the interplay between institutional context and organizational structure indeed matters, it does not determine collective participation and situated learning as actors can actively create solutions when structural conditions and institutioanl demands are less aligned.