1st Edition

Management and Organizations in Transitional China

By Yanlong Zhang, Lisa Keister Copyright 2016
    234 Pages
    by Routledge

    234 Pages
    by Routledge

    China’s 30-year market transition and its integration into the world economy provide a unique opportunity for exploring the nature of large-scale economic and political transformation and the mechanisms underlying organizational behavior during such a transition. Management and Organizations in Transitional China explores how managers and firms cope with transition-related challenges by adapting to, manipulating, or even creating the complex institutional environment. This book examines the way transitional institutions shape individual decisions and organizational strategies, the mechanisms that promote the diffusion of innovative management practices and economic policies, and the formation and evolution of interfirm networks.

    Based on a comprehensive review of the studies on market transition, this book investigates how firms manage their relationship with important stakeholders in the environment. It highlights the importance of network-based strategies for institutionally less-advantaged actors (like private firms, foreign entrants, and entrepreneurs) to establish legitimacy, gain institutional support, and mobilize financial resources. Moreover, this book studies the mechanisms that facilitate the adoption of innovative management practices and economic policies in the transitional context, comparing the mainstream diffusion theories and evaluating the relative potency of the diffusion drivers. Furthermore, Management and Organizations in Transitional China provides empirical analyses using longitudinal data of alliance formation, network evolution, and the effect of both alliance formation and network evolution on firm decision-making and performance.

    Combining theory, data analysis, and rich contextual description to provide a comprehensive understanding of the organizational transition process, this book will appeal to scholars and practitioners in general management, organizational studies, international business, entrepreneurship, and related disciplines.

    1. Introduction: The Chinese Context

    2. Institutional Changes, Stakeholder Salience, and Network-based Strategies

    3. Political Strategies of Foreign Entrants in the Transitional Period

    4. Social Embeddedness and Financial Ambidexterity of Small- and Micro-Firms

    5. Adaptation and Innovation in the Early Stages of Transition

    6. The Spillover of Liberalization Policies among Chinese Cities

    7. Changing Relational Patterns in Business Groups

    8. The State-owned Asset Management System and the Performance of SOEs

    9. Conclusion: The Chinese Experience

    Biography

    Yanlong Zhang is an Assistant Professor of Management at Guanghua School of Management, Peking University, China.

    Lisa A. Keister is Gilhuly Family Professor of Sociology at Duke University, USA.