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Social security reform and it's impact on Chinese firms during transition

Lu, Jin
http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=osu1179774647

Abstract Details

2007, Doctor of Philosophy, Ohio State University, Sociology.
Studies on China's economic reform have repeatedly highlighted the importance of the nation's social security reform, yet little is known about how this transition impacted individual firms. This dissertation provides a sociological examination of the impact of social security reform on firms in China. The central research question of this study concerns how institutional constraints resulted from firms' internal governance and organizational environments influence firms' ability to changing employee social security spending as well as the outcome of this reform in terms of firms' financial performance in China. I address this question by examining the dynamic interaction of institutional environment and firm's managerial choices during their adaptation to the nation's new social security policies. I identify groups of firms that shared similar managerial characteristics and strategic focuses and test whether or not firms in different strategic groups display distinct behavior towards their strategies in employee social security spending. I then examine performance outcomes of firms' policies and practices in employee social security spending across different stages of the social security reform.Building on research from strategic choice and institutional theories, I propose that firm's internal strength, such as its financial sources and managerial orientation towards markets, combined with external constraints resulting from local market conditions and regulative or normative pressures firms are typically exposed to in transition economies, would significantly affect a firm's social security spending, and subsequently profit and productivity. I use a data set of 433 State Owned Enterprises from a yearly 1990-99 panel data on Chinese firms to test the proposed hypotheses. The results provide strong support to the hypotheses and reveal that the way these factors taken effect varies along the dimensions of the time periods and the types of social security programs firms have adopted. By focusing on firms rather the establishment of the social security system itself, this study provides a unique perspective to understand the current social security reform and its relationship with the reform of enterprises in China. The results and findings will contribute to explanations of the adaptation process of organizations in transition economies.
Randy Hodson (Advisor)
135 p.
China; Social Security Reform; Economic Transition; Organizations; Organizational Behavior

Recommended Citations

Citations

  • Lu, J. (2007). Social security reform and it's impact on Chinese firms during transition [Doctoral dissertation, Ohio State University]. OhioLINK Electronic Theses and Dissertations Center. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=osu1179774647

    APA Style (7th edition)

  • Lu, Jin. Social security reform and it's impact on Chinese firms during transition. 2007. Ohio State University, Doctoral dissertation. OhioLINK Electronic Theses and Dissertations Center, http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=osu1179774647.

    MLA Style (8th edition)

  • Lu, Jin. "Social security reform and it's impact on Chinese firms during transition." Doctoral dissertation, Ohio State University, 2007. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=osu1179774647

    Chicago Manual of Style (17th edition)

osu1179774647
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© 2007, all rights reserved.
This open access ETD is published by The Ohio State University and OhioLINK.