Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-gxg78 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-24T02:26:14.409Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

The Adoption of Bottom-up Governance in China's Homeowner Associations

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 February 2015

Feng Wang ,
Haitao Yin  and
Zhiren Zhou
Feng Wang
Affiliation:
Shanghai University of Finance and Economics, China
Haitao Yin
Affiliation:
Shanghai Jiao Tong University, China
Zhiren Zhou
Affiliation:
Beijing University, China
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Since China's marketization-featured housing reform, homeowner associations have played a greater role in neighbourhood governance. Using the theory of social movements and organizations, this article investigates how homeowner associations strategically reorganize themselves to achieve their goals. Our survey in Beijing suggests that about half of the homeowner associations have adopted bottom-up governance structures, which are not specified in governmental regulations. We find that such innovations are more likely to occur when a neighbourhood needs grassroots participation to deal with external grievances, especially developer-related issues, or to overcome its powerlessness due to little access to the polity. We also find that homeowner associations are more likely to adopt bottom-up structures when their leaders believe strongly in resident participation or actively engage in extra-organizational professional activities as a means to overcome infrastructure deficit.

Keywords

bottom-up governanceChinahomeowner associationsleadershiporganizational structure自下而上的治理中国业主团体领导力组织结构
Type
Special Issue Articles
Information
Management and Organization Review , Volume 8 , Issue 3: Special Issue Innovations in Public and Non-profit Sector Organizations in China , November 2012 , pp. 559 - 583
Copyright
Copyright © International Association for Chinese Management Research 2012

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Aragón-Correa, A., García-Morales, V.J., & Cordón-Pozo, E. 2007. Leadership and organizational learning's role on innovation and performance: Lessons from Spain. Industrial Marketing Management, 36(3): 349–359.Google Scholar
Barber, B. 1965. Participation and mass apathy in associations. In Gouldner, A. (Ed.), Studies in leadership: 477–504. New York: Russell & Russell.Google Scholar
Bell, D. 1998. Civil society versus civic virtue. In Gutmann, A. (Ed.), Freedom of association: 239–272. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.Google Scholar
Blandy, S., Dixon, J., & Dupuis, A. 2006. Theorizing power relationships in multi-owned residential developments: Unpacking the bundle of rights. Urban Studies, 43(13): 2365–2383.Google Scholar
Blandy, S., Dupuis, A., & Dixon, J. 2010. Multi-owned housing: Law, power and practice. Farnham: Ashgate Publisher.Google Scholar
Cai, Y. 2007. Civil resistance and rule of law in China: The defense of homeowners' rights. Harward Contemparay China Series, 14: 174–195.Google Scholar
Chen, W., & Chen, Z. 2007. Homeowners in Guangzhouy Beijing and other cities vorite to the Chairman of the National People's Congress (in Chinese). [Cited 2 April 2011.] Available from URL: http://news.sohu.com/20070209/n248143902.shtml Google Scholar
Chen, Y. 2007. Property rights and self governance: A case study on homeowners' organizations in transition of Chinese society (in Chinese). In Qiu, C. (Ed.), The nonprofit sector: Its governance, interactions with other sectors and social innovation: 89–118. Taibei: Taiwan Zhisheng Culture Enterprise Ltd.Google Scholar
Chen, Y., Cao, J., & Sun, Z. 2009. Survey reports on homeowners' self-governing ability in Beijing residential neighborhoods (in Chinese). Harmonious Community Post, 1: 19–70.Google Scholar
Chen, Y., Shu, K., & Wang, H. 2004. New trends of China3s political culture – From economic freedom to political democracy: A case study on homeowners self-governance. Paper presented at the Workshop in Support of Community Self Governance, Indianan University.Google Scholar
Damanpour, F. 1991. Organizational innovation: A meta-analysis of effects of determinants and moderators. The Academy of Management Journal, 34(3): 555–590.Google Scholar
Damanpour, F., & Schneider, M. 2009. Characteristics of innovation and innovation adoption in public organizations: Assessing the role of managers. Journal of Public Administration Research and Theory, 19(3): 495–522.Google Scholar
DiMaggio, P., & Powell, W. W. 1983. The iron cage revisited: Institutional isomorphism and collective rationality in organizational fields. American Sociological Review, 48(2): 147–160.Google Scholar
Du, K. 2006. Homeowners' separation of power (in Chinese). China Reform, 5: 34–36.Google Scholar
Galaskiewicz, J. 1979. The structure of community organizational networks. Social Forces, 57: 1346–1364.Google Scholar
Gamson, W. A. 1975. The strategy of social protest. Homewood, IL: The Dorsey Press.Google Scholar
Ge, J. 2007. There are only 500 homeoumer associations in Beijing: The establishment of hotneovuner associations must overcome two obstacles (in Chinese). [Cited 12 September 2007.] Available from URL: http://www.hbqnb.com/news/Html/fcgdls/2007/831/07831152237132375.html Google Scholar
Gittell, M. 1980. Limits to citizen participation, Beverly Hills: Sage.Google Scholar
Graham, L., & Hogan, R. 1990. Social class and tactics: Neighborhood opposition to group homes. The Sociological Quarterly, 31(4): 513–529.Google Scholar
Guo, Z., & Pan, W. 2008. A study on urban old residence community management modes (in Chinese). Special Zone Economy, 6: 121–122.Google Scholar
Gurr, T. R. 1970. Why men rebel. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.Google Scholar
Heskin, A. D. 1991. The struggle for community. Boulder, CO: Westview.Google Scholar
Hunter, A., & Staggenborg, S. 1986. Communities do act: Neighborhood characteristics, resource mobilization, and political action by local community organizations. Social Science Journal, 23(2): 169–180.Google Scholar
Jenkins, J. C. 1983. Resource mobilization theory and the study of social movements. Annual Review of Sociology, 9: 527–553.Google Scholar
Jervis, P. 1975. Innovation and technology transfer – The roles and characteristics of individuals. IEEE Transactions on Engineering Management, 22: 19–27.Google Scholar
Knoke, D. 1988. Incentives in collective action organizations. American Sociological Review, 53(3): 311–329.Google Scholar
Kou, Z. 1998. Welfare housing allocation will become history (in Chinese). Beijing Review, 14(3): 41–44.Google Scholar
Lee, J. 2000. From welfare housing to home ownership: The dilemma of China's housing reform. Housing Studies, 15(1): 61–76.Google Scholar
Lei, T. 2010. The insitutional innovation of homeowner representative assembly: A case study on Shangdi Xili. Social Science of Beijing, 6: 59–63.Google Scholar
Liu, W. 2010. Practicing logic and double dimension of the neighborhood politics in blocks' daily life – A community residents' committee-centered analysis (in Chinese). Zhejiang Social Sciences, 4: 53–60.Google Scholar
Louviere, J. J., Henshcr, D. A., & Swait, J. J. D. 2000. Stated choice methods: Analysis and applications (1st ed.). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Martin, A. W. 2007. Organizational structure, authority and protest: The case of union organizing in the United States, 1990-2001. Social Forces, 85(3): 1413–1435.Google Scholar
McAdam, D. 1983. Tactical innovation and the pace of insurgency. American Sociological Review, 48(6): 735–754.Google Scholar
McCarthy, J. D. 1987. Pro-life and pro-choice mobilization: Infrastructure deficits and new technologies. In M. Zald, N. & McCarthy, J. D. (Eds), Social movements in an organizational society: 49–66. New Brunswick, NJ: Transaction Publishers.Google Scholar
McCarthy, J. D., & Zald, M. N. 1977. Resource mobilization and social movements: A partial theory. The American Journal of Sociology, 82(6): 1212–1241.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Michels, R. 1949. Political parties: A sociological study of the oligarchical tendencies of modem democracy. Glencoe, IL: Free Press.Google Scholar
Miller, D., & Friesen, P. H. 1982. Innovation in conservative and entrepreneurial firms: Two models of strategic momentum. Strategic Management Journal, 3(1): 1–25.Google Scholar
Ohmer, M. L. 2007. Citizen participation in neighborhood organizations and its relationship to volunteers' self- and collective efficacy and sense of community. Social Work Research, 31 (2): 109–120.Google Scholar
Oliver, P. G., Manvell, G., & Teixeira, R. 1985. A theory of critical mass: Interdependence, group heterogeneity, and the production of collective action. American Journal of Sociology, 91: 522–556.Google Scholar
Olson, M. 1965. The logic of collective action: Public goods and the theory of groups. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.Google Scholar
Pan, S. 2008. An investigation of homeowners' self-governing models (in Chinese). The Journal of Fujian Institute of Political Science & Laws 37: 88–91.Google Scholar
Patton, M. Q. 1990. Qualitative evaluation and research methods (2nd ed.). Newbury Park, CA: Sage.Google Scholar
Phan, P. H. H., Zhou, J., & Abrahamson, E. 2010. Creativity, innovation, and entrepreneurship in China. Management and Organization Review, 6(2): 175–194.Google Scholar
Plowman, D. A., Solansky, S., Beck, T. E., Baker, L., Kulkarni, M., & Travis, D. V. 2007. The role of leadership in emergent, self-organization. The Leadership Quarterly, 18(4): 341–356.Google Scholar
Prestby, J. E., & Wandersman, A. 1985. An empirical exploration of a framework of organizational viability: Maintaining block organizations. The Journal of Applied Behavioral Science, 21(3): 287–305.Google Scholar
Purcell, M. H. 1998. Power in Los Angeles: Homeowners associations, urban politics, and the production of urban space. Unpublished Doctoral Dissertation, University of California, Los Angeles, CA.Google Scholar
Qin, B. 2007. Hallway democracy (in Chinese). Paper presented at the international conference on community governance: Multi-cultural perspective, Renmin University of China, Beijing, China.Google Scholar
Rabrenovic, G. 1996. Community builders: A tale of neighborhood mobilization in two cities. Philadelphia, PA: Temple University Press.Google Scholar
Read, B. L. 2003. Democratizing the neighbourhood? New private housing and home-owner self-organization in urban China. The China Journal, 49: 31–59.Google Scholar
Ren, C. 2008. Strenghen homeowners' self-governance (in Chinese). Modern Property Management, 10: 20–23.Google Scholar
Rich, R. C. 1980a. The dynamics of leadership in neighborhood organizations. Social Science Quarterly, 60(4): 570–587.Google Scholar
Rich, R. C. 1980b. A political-economy approach to the study of neighborhood organizations. American Journal of Political Science, 24(4): 559–592.Google Scholar
Rosenblum, N. L. 1998. Membership and morals: The personal uses of pluralism in America. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.Google Scholar
Rothschild-Whitt, J. 1976. Conditions facilitating participatory-democratic organizations. Sociological Inquiry, 46(2): 75–86.Google Scholar
Rothschild-Whitt, J. 1979. The collectivist organization: An alternative to rational-bureaucratic models. American Sociological Review, 44(4): 509–527.Google Scholar
Schwirian, K. P., & Mesch, G. S. 1993. Embattled neighborhoods: The political ecology of neighborhood change. In Hutchinson, R. (Ed.), Research in urban sociology. Vol. 3: 83–110. Greenwich, CT: JAI.Google Scholar
Seidman, I. E. 1991. Interviewing as qualitative research: A guide for researchers in education and social sciences. New York: Teachers College Press.Google Scholar
Sun, L. 2010. Homeowner committees and neighborhood governance mechanism innovation (in Chinese). [Last accessed 1 March 2011] Available from URL: http://www.cdrf.org.cn/data/view.php?aid=1903 Google Scholar
Swaminathan, A., & Wade, J. B. 2001. Social movement theory and the evolution of new organizational forms. In Schoonhoven, C. B. & Romanelli, E. (Eds), The entrepreneurship dynamic in industry evolution; Origins of entrepreneurship and the evolution of industries: 287–313. Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press.Google Scholar
Tan, S. 2000. To what degree do neighborhood property management committees play their roles? (in Chinese). [Cited 12 July 2007.] Available from URL: http://nb.focus.cn/news/2000-08-19/8618.html Google Scholar
Tilly, C. 1978. From mobilization to revolution. Reading, MA: Addison-Wesley.Google Scholar
Turner, R. N., & Killian, L. 1972. Collective behavior (2nd ed.). Englewood Clifls, NJ: Prentice-Hall.Google Scholar
Walder, A. G. 2011. From control to ownership: China's managerial revolution. Management and Organization Review 7(1): 19–38.Google Scholar
Wang, F. 2008a. The social functions of private neighborhood associations: The case of homeowner associations in urban China. Unpublished Dissertation, University of Southern California, Los Angeles.Google Scholar
Wang, F. 2010. Regulations and the imbalance of power relationships in newly developed residential neighbourhoods in urban China. In Blandy, S., Dixon, J. & Dupuis, A. (Eds), Multi-owned housing: Law, power and practice: 125–144. Aldershot: Ashgate Publisher.Google Scholar
Wang, F., & Cooper, T. L. 2007. The impact of internal political life of private neighborhood associations on residents’, civic awareness and democratic participation: An in-depth case study of Chinese homeowner association. Paper presented at the the 2007 Association for Research on Nonprofit Organizations and Voluntary Action (ARNOVA) Annual Conference, Atlanta, GA.Google Scholar
Wang, F., & Cooper, T. L. 2008. Chinese homeowner associations: A school of democracy? PA Times, February: 6.Google Scholar
Wang, Y. P., & Murie, A. 1996. The process of commercialisation of urban housing in China. Urban Studies, 33(6): 971–989.Google Scholar
Wang, Y. P., & Murie, A. 1999. Commercial housing development in urban China. Urban Studies, 36(9): 1475–1494.Google Scholar
Wang, Z. 2008b. The problems of homeowner committees' rules and the resolutions (in Chinese). Morden Property Management, 4: 45–47.Google Scholar
Weber, M.; Gerth, H. H., & Turner, B. S. 1946. From Max Weber: Essays in sociology. New York: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Wei, C., & Tang, H. 2007. Owner occupiers' committee: Potential carrier of democratic growth in city community — Investigation on owner occupiers' committee of Jiaheyuan community in Guangzhou City (in Chinese). Journal of Guangdong Institute of Public Administration, 19(2): 76–81.Google Scholar
Wood, J. R. 1981. Leadership in voluntary organizations. New Brunswick: Rutgers University Press.Google Scholar
Xia, J. 2003. The first signs of the civil society of China: The committee of owners as an example (in Chinese). Journal of Literature, History and Philosophy, 3: 115–121.Google Scholar
Xia, Y. 2007. Homeowner associations and their committees under the property rights law. Northern Law Studies, 1(5): 133–140.Google Scholar
Yu, X. 2008. Community participation of the middle stratum: On sense and channel (in Chinese). Journal of Social Science of Hunan Normal University, 2: 71–76.Google Scholar
Zald, M. N., & Ash, R. 1966. Social movement organizations: Growth, decay and change. Social Forces, 44(3): 327–341.Google Scholar
Zhang, Y. 2010. 654 Millions of Empty Housing Units in China's 660 Cities (in Chinese). [Cited 21 October 2010.] Available from URL: http://finance.qq.eom/a/20100705/006186.htm Google Scholar
Zou, S. 2005. Homeowners' rights-protection movement in urban China (in Chinese). Journal of Shenzhen University (Humanities and Social Sciences), 22(5): 44–49.Google Scholar