Chinese Journal of Sociology

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Power Game and Industrial Institutional Change: An Empirical Study on the Strategic Shift in the International Cooperation by the Chinese Oil Industry (1988-2008)

Author：Liang Bo，School of Sociology，Shanghai University   

  1. Liang Bo，School of Sociology，Shanghai University
  • Online:2012-01-20 Published:2012-01-20
  • Contact: Author：Liang Bo，School of Sociology，Shanghai University E-mail: liangbook@126.com
  • About author:Liang Bo，School of Sociology，Shanghai University
  • Supported by:

    The research was one of the results of the project “The Study of MacroSocial Order in the Governance of Industries” (11CSH036), which was supported by National Social Science Fund.

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Abstract:

From 1988 to 2008, the international cooperation of the Chinese oil industry underwent an important strategic shift from the initial ”importing” (yin jing lai) of foreign capitals and technology to the “exporting” (zou chu qu) of capitals and technology after 1998. The core issue of this study was to reflect upon this significant shift and answer questions at the theoretical level. There exist two competing theories in this regardthe theoretical explanation that emphasizes the importance of nation‘’s rational industrial policies from the perspective of new institutionalism in economic sociology, and the theoretical explanation that emphasizes market functions from neoclassic economics of industries. The current study attempted to get beyond of the inclination of a priorirationality or structural determinism in the existing research by introducing the paradigm of strategic analysis of French organizational sociology in order to describe and analyze the hidden micropolitical process during the industrial institutional change. The analysis was on four dimensions of actors’ differentiated targets, games’ organizational environments, actors’ action competencies and control of key resources, and actors’ action strategies. It was found that, as a phenomenon in an industrial institutional transformation, the strategic shift in the international cooperation by the Chinese oil industry was not only under the significant influences of the state, its industrial policies, and the market mechanism, but it was also, even to a greater extent, at the function of the dynamics of complex power relationships and the mechanisms in the power games. That means that the deeplyseated driving force for this strategic shift mainly came from a special power game between the central government （the state） and the stateowned oil companies in terms of their respective action ability and resource control as well as their respective balancing and judging of specific organizational environments in interaction and the other parties’ probable action strategies.

Key words:  Chinese oil industry, international cooperation strategies, power game, institutional change