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Tigers are bound and monkeys are free: A comparative study of state-owned and township/village-owned enterprises in China

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Abstracts

Why is it that the shape and success of economic reform have varied across different industrial enterprises in China since the late 1970s? Why have collectively-owned enterprises, especially township/village-owned enterprises, developed rapidly while state-owned enterprises have suffered severe troubles in the past decade? By combining sociological theories of organization and the new institutional economics, the present study argues that changing institutional arrangements for industrial enterprises is the key factor in explaining the differences between state-owned and township/village-owned enterprises. This study is based on governmental policy documents and a nationwide survey data set on industrial enterprises that spans different regions, ownership structures, and management systems in China (750 industrial enterprises). The purpose of the study is to evaluate how governmental policies as the institutional environment affect management systems in Chinese industrial enterprises. This research not only extends knowledge of the relationship between environments and organizations, but also has significant policy implications.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Sociology/Anthropology, University of Wisconsin-Parkside, 53141, Kenosha, WI

    Xun Wang & Douglass Heckathorn

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  1. Xun Wang
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  2. Douglass Heckathorn
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Additional information

I would like to thank, Seymour Warkov, Charles Logan and Wayne Villemez for their valuable comments on earlier drafts. An earlier version of this article was presented at the International Conference of “China at the Turn of the Century: Issues, Challenges, and Agendas“ in Hawaii in 1994. The research in this article has been supported by the dissertation fellowship and faculty travel fund from the University of Connecticut. I also would like to thank Anna Maria Williams and Gene Shackman for their comments and help.

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Wang, X., Heckathorn, D. Tigers are bound and monkeys are free: A comparative study of state-owned and township/village-owned enterprises in China. J OF CHIN POLIT SCI 1, 7–41 (1995). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF02915927

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