Knowledge and learning in transnational ventures: an actor-centred approach*

The aim of this article is to develop the foundations of an actor-centred, processual approach to examining the influence of cross-border knowledge transfer and management learning on transnational institution building in post-socialist countries. We argue that there is a need for more research to understand how key social actors go about (re)structuring, (re)defining and sharing knowledge within new international ventures. We contend that social actors can play a significant role in creating and structuring the ‘transnational social space’ in which the new venture takes shape, exercising strategic choice that can mediate, adapt or even reject the apparently constraining effects of technical-economic or cultural-institutional factors. The role of social actors is conceptualized as a socio-political sensemaking process, a perspective that would complement the current structuralist bias in the discussion about the emergence of transnational social space in international management research literature.