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Institutional Determinism and Political Strategies

An Empirical Investigation

Huazhong University of Science and Technology, Wuhan, China

Taïeb Hafsi

HEC, Montreal, Quebec, Canada

Wei Wu

Huazhong University of Science and Technology, Wuhan, China

This article offers a rare study of the content and performance of political strategies in China’s highly institutionalized setting. A conceptual framework based on institutional theory findings is proposed to develop a set of expected political behavior. This is then confronted to data from a convenient sample of 233 firms. The results show that there are indeed recognizable patterns of political strategy, most of which are bent by the strong institutional environment toward accommodation rather than confrontation or defiance. The strategies identified were found to be related to the nature of the firms’ available resources and to the firms’ ability to extract benefits or bend the government’s behavior in their favor.

Key Words: corporate political strategy • institutional environment • China

This version was published on September 1, 2009

Business & Society, Vol. 48, No. 3, 284-325 (2009)
DOI: 10.1177/0007650307305371


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