Kipping and Bjarnar (1998)

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Kipping and Bjarnar (1998) - The Marshall Plan and the transfer of US management models to Europe

To help Europe recover after the WWII, the European Recovery Programme, or more widely known as The Marshall Plan, was set up by the US Secretary of State (Mr Marshall) in 1947.

It aimed to improve the productivity of the European countries by transferring know-how and technology from America.

A European Productivity Agency (EPA) was initiated in Europe to co-ordinate these efforts.

Diffusion (transfer) channels included actors and institutions, which at as "linkers", or intermediaries, in the diffusion process. Linkers include:

Conveyors - intervene in the transfer of knowledge to the users. These include trainers, researchers, agents, demonstrators and teachers.

Consultants - assist users in implementing the new system by helping with specific problems. They are "Change agents".

Leaders - "insiders" of a receiving system, who have a powerful influence and can succeed in implementing the transition by setting an example.

The linkers are seen as a part of social networks, which influence and determine their relationship with producers and receivers of knowledge. Thus it is important that the transfer process consider the informal, personal exchanges between actors, as well as formal channels.

Institutions play an important part in the success of a transfer, as they affect the decisions actors make.

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