Institutional Logics and the Management Mode of “Western Formality but Chinese Substance”
——An Institutional Analysis of Management Practices of State-Owned Enterprises
Abstract The literature suggests two approaches studying state-owned enterprises (SOEs) in China, either evaluating SOEs using the western criteria, or overly emphasizing their indigenous features rooted in China. This paper draws on the institutional literature and discerns technical, economic, and sociopolitical logics in regulating SOEs. Across the layers of dao, ti, and shu, this study analyzes the management mode of “Western Formality but Chinese Substance” that is reflected in large SOEs since economic reform. This paper suggests that the sociopolitical logic is dominant in these logics, and both Chinese and Western rules coexist and probably collide, while Chinese force is prior to Western’s, and Western in formality but Chinese in substance. Beneath these management practices is the legacy of Chinese traditional management culture.
