Hostname: page-component-8448b6f56d-xtgtn Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-04-23T14:48:05.124Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

Is Entrepreneur–Politician Alliance Sustainable During Transition? The Case of Management Buyouts in China

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 February 2015

Pei Sun
Affiliation:
Fudan University, China
Mike Wright
Affiliation:
Nottingham University, UK
Kamel Mellahi
Affiliation:
University of Sheffield, UK

Abstract

This article explores the dynamic interactions between entrepreneurs and politicians in transitional China through the lens of management buyouts. Specifically, we identify two contrasting outcomes of entrepreneur–politician alliances: privatization buyouts by entrepreneurs implying sustainable original alliances and failed management buyouts implying the collapse of the original alliances. Drawing on the rent appropriation literature, we treat Chinese management buyouts as bargaining, clarification, and redistribution of organizational rent between entrepreneurs and the government agencies represented by local politicians. We further develop a model of entrepreneur–politician bargaining that identifies the determinants of varying rent bargaining and management buyout outcomes.

Type
Articles
Copyright
Copyright © International Association for Chinese Management Research 2010

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Ahlstrom, D., & Bruton, G. D. 2001. Learning from successful local private firms in China: Establishing legitimacy. Academy of Management Executive, 15(4): 7283.Google Scholar
Ahlstrom, D., Bruton, G. D., & Yeh, K. S. 2008. Private firms in China: Building legitimacy in an emerging economy. Journal of World Business, 43(4): 385399.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Alvarez, S. A., & Barney, J. B. 2004. Organizing rent generation and appropriation: Toward a theory of the entrepreneurial firm. Journal of Business Venturing, 19(5): 621635.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Amit, R., & Schoemaker, P. 1993. Strategic assets and organizational rent. Strategic Management Journal, 14(1): 3346.Google Scholar
Barney, J. B. 1986. Strategic factor markets: Expectations, luck, and business strategy. Management Science, 42(10): 12311241.Google Scholar
Barney, J. B. 1991. Firm resources and sustained competitive advantage. Journal of Management, 17(1): 99120.Google Scholar
Barney, J., Wright, M., & Ketchen, D. 2001. The resource-based view of the firm: Ten years after 1991. Journal of Management, 27(6): 625642.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Baumol, W. J. 1990. Entrepreneurship: Productive, unproductive, and destructive. Journal of Political Economy, 98(5): 893921.Google Scholar
Bowman, C., & Ambrosini, V. 2000. Value creation versus value capture: Towards a coherent definition of value in strategy. British Journal of Management, 11(1): 115.Google Scholar
Bruner, R., & Paine, L. 1988. Management buyouts and managerial ethics. California Management Review, 30(2): 89106.Google Scholar
Chang, W., & MacMillan, J. C. 1991. A review of entrepreneurial development in the People's Republic of China. Journal of Business Venturing, 6(6): 375379.Google Scholar
Chen, C. J. 2004. Transforming rural China: How local institutions shape property rights in China. London and New York: Routledge Curzon.Google Scholar
Chen, W. 2007. Does the colour of the cat matter? The red hat strategy in China's private enterprises. Management and Organization Review, 3(1): 5580.Google Scholar
Chen, H., & Rozelle, S. 1999. Leaders, managers, and the organization of township and village enterprises in China. Journal of Development Economics, 60(2): 529557.Google Scholar
Coff, R. 1999. When competitive advantage doesn't lead to performance: The resource-based view and stakeholder bargaining power. Organization Science, 10(2): 119133.Google Scholar
DiMaggio, P., & Powell, W. 1983. The iron cage revisited: Institutional isomorphism and collective rationality in organization fields. American Sociological Review, 48(2): 147160.Google Scholar
Dong, X., Bowles, P., & Ho, S. P. 2002. The determinants of employee ownership in China's privatized rural industry: Evidence from Jiangsu and Shandong. Journal of Comparative Economics, 30(2): 415437.Google Scholar
Dyer, J. H., & Singh, H. 1998. The relational view: Cooperative strategy and sources of interorganizational competitive advantage. Academy of Management Review, 23(4): 660679.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Filatotchev, I., Starkey, K., & Wright, M. 1994. The ethical challenge of management buy-outs as a form of privatization in Central and Eastern Europe. Journal of Business Ethics, 13(7): 523532.Google Scholar
Francis, C-B. 1999. Bargained property rights: The case of China's high-technology sector. In Oi, J. C. & Walder, A. G. (Eds.), Property rights and economic reform in China: 226247. Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press.Google Scholar
Frye, T. 2006. Original sin, good works, and property rights in Russia. World Politics, 58(4): 479504.Google Scholar
Garnaut, R., Song, L., Tenev, S., & Yao, Y. 2005. China's ownership transformation: Process, outcomes, prospects. Washington, DC: The International Finance Corporation (IFC) and the World Bank.Google Scholar
Hill, C. W., & Jones, T. M. 1992. Stakeholder-agency theory. Journal of Management Studies, 29(2): 131154.Google Scholar
Huang, Y., & Lane, D. 2001. Kelon: China's corporate dragon. Harvard Business School Case Study, No. 701–053. Boston, MA: Harvard Business School Publishing.Google Scholar
Jensen, M., & Meckling, W. 1976. Theory of the firm: Managerial behavior, agency costs and ownership structure. Journal of Financial Economics, 3(4): 305360.Google Scholar
Kay, J. 1993. Foundations of corporate success. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Kung, J. K-S., & Lin, Y. 2007. The decline of township-and-village enteiprises in China's economic transition. World Development, 35(4): 569584.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lang, L. X. 2006. The Chinese-style MBO. Beijing: The Oriental Press. (In Chinese.) 朗咸平 (2006) 。 《中国式MBO》 。 东方出版社。Google Scholar
Li, H., & Zhou, L. 2005. Political turnover and economic performance: The incentive role of personnel control in China. Journal of Public Economics, 89(9/10): 17431762.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Li, P. P. 2005. The puzzle of China's township village enterprises: The paradox of local corporatism in a dual-track economic transition. Management and Organization Review, 1(2): 197224.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Liu, G. S., & Sun, P. 2006. The rise and fall of China's corporate dragon: Kelon and its old and new owners. In Mallin, C. A. (Ed.), International corporate governance: A case study approach: 218245. Cheltenham: Edward Elgar.Google Scholar
Liu, G. S., Sun, P., & Woo, W-T. 2006. The political economy of Chinese-style privatization: Motives and constraints. World Development, 34(12): 20162033.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
McMillan, J., & Woodruff, C. 2002. The central role of entrepreneurs in transition economies. Journal of Economic Perspectives, 16(3): 153170.Google Scholar
National Audit Office/CMBOR. 1991. Auditing management buyouts in the public sector. London: National Audit Office.Google Scholar
Nee, V. 1992. Organizational dynamics of market transition: Hybrid form, property rights, and mixed economy in China. Administrative Science Quarterly, 37(1): 127.Google Scholar
Oi, J. C., & Walder, A. G. 1999. Property rights in the Chinese economy: Contours of the process of change. In Oi, J. C. & Walder, A. G. (Eds.), Property rights and economic reform in China: 124. Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Park, A., & Shen, M. 2003. Joint liability lending and the rise and fall of China's township and village enterprises. Journal of Development Economics, 71(2): 497531.Google Scholar
Peng, M. W. 2000. Business strategies in transition economies. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Peng, M. W. 2001. How entrepreneurs create wealth in transition economies. Academy of Management Executive, 15(1): 95108.Google Scholar
Roland, G. 2000. Transition and economics: Politics, markets, and firms. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.Google Scholar
Skaperdas, S. 1992. Cooperation, conflict, and power in the absence of property rights. American Economic Review, 82(4): 720739.Google Scholar
Scott, R. W. 2008. Institutions and organizations (3rd ed.). Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications.Google Scholar
Shirley, M. M., & Walsh, P. 2000. Public versus private ownership: The current state of the debate. World Bank Policy Research Working Paper, No. 2420.Google Scholar
Suchman, M. C. 1995. Managing legitimacy: Strategic and institutional approaches. Academy of Management Review, 20(3): 571610.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Tan, J. 1996. Regulatory environment and strategic orientations in a transitional economy: A study of Chinese private enterprise. Entrepreneurship Theory and Practice, 21(1): 3146.Google Scholar
Tan, J., & Litschert, R. 1994. Environment-strategy relationship and its performance implications: An empirical study of the Chinese electronics industry. Strategic Management Journal, 15(1): 120.Google Scholar
Tan, J., & Tan, D. 2005. Environment-strategy co-evolution and co-alignment: A staged model of Chinese SOEs under transition. Strategic Management Journal, 26(2): 141157.Google Scholar
Tan, J., Yang, J., & Veliyath, R. 2009. Particularistic and system trust among small and medium enterprises: A comparative study in China's transition economy. Journal of Business Venturing, 24(6): 544557.Google Scholar
Tsang, E. W. K. 1996. In search of legitimacy: The private entrepreneur in China. Entrepreneurship Theory and Practice, 21(1): 2130.Google Scholar
Tsui, A. S. 2006. Contextualization in Chinese management research. Management and Organization Review, 2(1): 113.Google Scholar
Tsui, A. S., Schoonhoven, C. B., Meyer, M. W., Lau, C-M., & Milkovich, G. T. 2004. Organization and management in the midst of societal transformation: The People's Republic of China. Organization Science, 15(2): 133144.Google Scholar
Tsui, A. S., Bian, Y., & Cheng, L. (Eds.). 2006. China's domestic private firms: Multidisciplinary perspectives on management and performance. Armonk, NY: M.E. Sharp.Google Scholar
Walder, A. G. 1995. Local governments as industrial firms: An organizational analysis of China's transitional economy. American Journal of Sociology, 101(2): 263301.Google Scholar
Whetten, D. 2009. An examination of the interface between context and theory applied to the study of Chinese organizations. Management and Organization Review, 5(1): 2955.Google Scholar
Wright, M. 2007a. Private equity and management buy-outs. In Landström, H. (Ed.), Handbook of research on venture capital. Cheltenham: Edward Elgar.Google Scholar
Wright, M. 2007b. Venture capital in China: A view from Europe. Asia Pacific Journal of Management, 24(3): 269281.Google Scholar
Wright, M., Robbie, K., Thompson, S., & Starkey, K. 1994. Longevity and the life cycle of MBOs. Strategic Management Journal, 15(3): 215227.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Wright, M., Hoskisson, R., Busenitz, L., & Dial, J. 2000. Entrepreneurial growth through privatization: The upside of management buyouts. Academy of Management Review, 25(3): 591601.Google Scholar
Wright, M., Filatotchev, I., Hoskisson, R. E., & Peng, M. W. 2005. Strategy research in emerging economies: Challenging the conventional wisdom. Journal of Management Studies, 42(1): 133.Google Scholar
Wright, M., Liu, X., Buck, T., & Filatotchev, I. 2008. Returnee entrepreneurs, science park location choice and performance: An analysis of high-technology SMEs in China. Entrepreneurship Theory and Practice, 32(1): 131155.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Xin, K., & Pearce, J. 1996. Guanxi: Connections as substitutes for formal institutional support. Academy of Management Journal, 39(6): 16411658.Google Scholar
Zhang, J. 2008. State power, elite relations, and the politics of privatization in China's rural industry: Different approaches in two regions. Asian Survey, 48(2): 215238.CrossRefGoogle Scholar