Abstract: This paper presents an explanatory framework for investigating the power relationships among business actors and their strategic interactions， as well as their embedded social networks and institutional settings． Grounded on the “power” analysis from the French School of Organizational Sociology （FSoS）， this paper provides an indepth analysis of the business alliance between a stateowned asset operating organization and a privateenterprise group， which was undertaken in the reorganization of stateowned assets in China． With the concept of “embeddedness，” the author contends that， power， as an indispensable prerequisite for any business alliance， is embedded in social networks， and more broadly， in the institutional environment of the marketoriented reform and regime continuity in China， which in turn brings uncertainty to power and alliance． This paper contributes at the theoretical level by bringing the “power” analysis back into the business alliance literature， integrating Granovetter’s network embeddedness and Nee’s institutional embeddedness， and proposing to have close attention paid to social networks and broader institutional surroundings within which the business actors are embedded and being influenced．

Key words: business alliance ,   reorganization of stateowned assets  ,  embeddedness of power  ,  social networks  ,  marketoriented reform and regime continuity