Organizational structure, context, customer orientation, and performance: lessons from Chinese state‐owned enterprises

This study develops a model grounded in the contingency theory (i.e., context–structure–performance) applicable to Chinese state‐owned enterprises (SOEs). Using data from a sample of 205 industrial SOEs, the study shows that SOE growth performance relative to the industry is positively predicted by formal control, inversely predicted by decentralization, and positively predicted by the interaction of the two. Customer product knowledge utilization, unrelated to growth performance relative to the industry, is positively predicted by formal control and the interaction of formal control with decentralization. Foreign induced industry competitiveness, technological turbulence, size, and production technology routineness are treated as context variables and modeled accordingly. Copyright © 2003 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

[1]  C. Mills,et al.  The Theory of Social and Economic Organization , 1948 .

[2]  Tom R. Burns,et al.  The Management of Innovation. , 1963 .

[3]  P. Lawrence,et al.  Organization and Environment: Managing Differentiation and Integration , 1967 .

[4]  D. Pugh,et al.  Dimensions of Organization Structure , 1968 .

[5]  J. Child.  Organization Structure and Strategies of Control: A Replication of the Aston Study , 1972 .

[6]  G. Zaltman,et al.  Innovations and organizations , 2020, Organizational Innovation.

[7]  Charles J. McMillan,et al.  The Culture-Free Context of Organization Structure: A Tri-National Comparison , 1974 .

[8]  P. Khandwalla.  Mass Output Orientation of Operations Technology and Organizational Structure. , 1974 .

[9]  Hans Heymann.  China's Approach to Technology Acquisition: Part 3. Summary Observations , 1975 .

[10]  J. Pfeffer,et al.  The External Control of Organizations. , 1978 .

[11]  Gerald Zaltman,et al.  Knowledge Utilization as Planned Social Change , 1979 .

[12]  Rosalie L. Tung.  Dimensions of Organizational Environments: An Exploratory Study of Their Impact on Organization Structure , 1979 .

[13]  Henry Mintzberg,et al.  The Structuring of Organizations , 1979 .

[14]  S. Winter,et al.  An evolutionary theory of economic change , 1983 .

[15]  G. John,et al.  Effects of Organizational Structure of Marketing Planning on Credibility and Utilization of Plan Output , 1984 .

[16]  O. Shenkar,et al.  Is Bureaucracy Inevitable? The Chinese Experience , 1984 .

[17]  Decision of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China on reform of the economic structure , 1984 .

[18]  Charles K. Warriner,et al.  Organizations and their environments : essays in the sociology of organizations , 1985 .

[19]  James R. Lincoln,et al.  Organizational Structures in Japanese and U.S. Manufacturing , 1986 .

[20]  John S. Henley,et al.  INTRODUCING MARKET FORCES INTO MANAGERIAL DECISION‐MAKING IN CHINESE INDUSTRIAL ENTERPRISES , 1986 .

[21]  Max Boisot,et al.  Markets and Hierarchies in a Cultural Perspective , 1986 .

[22]  Danny Miller,et al.  Psychological and Traditional Determinants of Structure. , 1986 .

[23]  M. Lockett.  Culture and the Problems of Chinese Management , 1988 .

[24]  中華人民共和国国家統計局.  China statistical yearbook , 1988 .

[25]  John Child,et al.  The Iron Law of Fiefs: Bureaucratic Failure and the Problem of Governance in the Chinese Economic Reforms , 1988 .

[26]  Karl G. Jöreskog,et al.  Lisrel 8: User's Reference Guide , 1997 .

[27]  John R. Schermerhorn,et al.  Managerial Leadership in Chinese Industrial Enterprises , 1990 .

[28]  Bernard J. Jaworski,et al.  Market orientation: The construct, research propositions, and managerial implications. , 1990 .

[29]  MillerDanny.  Stale in the Saddle , 1991 .

[30]  Lawrence Gales,et al.  Organization Theory: A Strategic Approach , 1991 .

[31]  David J. Miller,et al.  Stale in the Saddle: CEO Tenure and the Match Between Organization and Environment , 1991 .

[32]  Anil Menon,et al.  A Model of Marketing Knowledge use within Firms , 1992 .

[33]  L. James,et al.  rwg: An assessment of within-group interrater agreement. , 1993 .

[34]  C. Prahalad,et al.  Competing for the Future , 1994 .

[35]  Patricia J. Daugherty,et al.  The Effect of Just-in-Time Selling on Organizational Structure: An Empirical Investigation , 1994 .

[36]  Justin Tan,et al.  Environment-Strategy Relationship and its Performance Implications: An Empirical Study of Chinese Electronics Industry , 1994 .

[37]  Mary Ann Von Glinow,et al.  Paradoxes of Organizational Theory and Research: Using the Case of China to Illustrate National Contingency , 1994 .

[38]  Robert J. Litschert,et al.  Environment-strategy relationship and its performance implications: An empirical study of the , 1994 .

[39]  Gordon E. Greenley.  Market Orientation and Company Performance: Empirical Evidence From UK Companies , 1995 .

[40]  David T. Wilson,et al.  A Longitudinal Study of the Impact of Market Structure, Firm Structure, Strategy, and Market Orientation Culture on Dimensions of Small-Firm Performance , 1996 .

[41]  M. Boisot,et al.  From Fiefs to Clans and Network Capitalism: Explaining China's Emerging Economic Order , 1996 .

[42]  Gary L. Frazier,et al.  Outcome-Based and Behavior-Based Coordination Efforts in Channel Relationships , 1996 .

[43]  Mike W. Peng,et al.  The Growth of the Firm in Planned Economies in Transition: Institutions, Organizations, and Strategic Choice , 1996 .

[44]  Bernard J. Jaworski,et al.  Market orientation in United States and Scandinavian companies. A cross-cultural study , 1996 .

[45]  高 尚全,et al.  China's economic reform , 1996 .

[46]  R. Grosse,et al.  Carrying out a successful privatization: The YPF case , 1998 .

[47]  大塚 啓二郎,et al.  Industrial reform in China : past performance and future prospects , 1998 .

[48]  Varun Grover,et al.  Strategic Information Systems Planning: Planning System Dimensions, Internal Coalignment, and Implications for Planning Effectiveness , 1998 .

[49]  P. Adler.  Building better bureaucracies , 1999 .

[50]  J. Benson,et al.  Markets, firms and workers in Chinese state‐owned enterprises , 1999 .

[51]  Shulin Gu,et al.  China's Industrial Technology: Market Reform and Organisational Change , 1999 .

[52]  Jun Ma.  The Chinese economy in the 1990s , 1999 .

[53]  John C. Narver,et al.  Market‐oriented is more than being customer‐led , 1999 .

[54]  Glenn B. Voss,et al.  Strategic Orientation and Firm Performance in an Artistic Environment , 2000 .

[55]  J. Farley,et al.  Market-Focused Organizational Transformation in China , 2000 .

[56]  Kannan Ramaswamy,et al.  Organizational ownership, competitive intensity, and firm performance: An empirical study of the Indian manufacturing sector , 2001 .

[57]  Yadong Luo,et al.  Guanxi and organizational dynamics: organizational networking in Chinese firms , 2001 .