Adapting procurement practices to suit a host country as a probable localization tactic

Acquiring a local character is one of the cornerstones of going global. By blending into the surrounding environment, contractors are able to conduct operations deep inside national markets with minimal local hostility. Yet localisation does have its limits. Excessive localisation would only lead to the company losing the benefits accrued from integrating activities across national markets. The integration-localisation tension therefore has to be delicately balanced. Previously documented localisation tactics adopted by construction companies pertain to personnel, capital, resource utilisation, office management, and relations with government administrators. This paper takes a look at another corporate affair-procurement of construction orders-in an attempt to determine whether it too is coupled in any way to the localisation motive. By examining the Japanese contractors in Malaysia, this paper demonstrates that the adaptation of traditional construction management practices is the impetus of pragmatic necessities rather than some supranational agenda. Intermingling of Japanese and Malaysian archetypal dispositions is done with prudence. For performance impact and reputation distinctiveness, on aspects which the Japanese are deemed to have a dominating edge-quality, time, cost, safety and work management-the bias is towards retaining archetypal Japanese approaches. For the same reasons, a skewed inclination towards local norms is observed in contract management due to the Japanese contractors' endogenous deficiencies. These biases become accentuated with increase in project size or complexity.