‘Capital Breeds Capital’: Bourdieu and the Cross-National Importation of Organizational Models

This chapter draws upon Bourdieu’s concept of capital to examine the importation of organisational models and the adaptive processes that we observed in respective institutional contexts. Through the lens of a longitudinal case study, we demonstrate how a coalition of elite actors mobilised capital to successfully import the US community foundation model into the North East of England. By converting different forms of capital within the philanthropic field, local power brokers enabled the local adaptation of models and associated practices aligned with particular community needs and circumstances. Our main contribution to this book is to demonstrate the need for elite actors to convert capital, which can facilitate the importation of organisational models. We show how local elite actors drawn from different professional and business fields build coalitions during the process of importation to engage in the conversion of different types of capitals.