Multiple mechanisms of policy diffusion in China

Zhang, Youlang; Zhu, Xufeng

doi:10.1080/14719037.2018.1497695

Cited by 76 publications

(38 citation statements)

References 72 publications

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“…Research has emphasized that Chinese upper-level governments frequently promote local government practices through guidelines, protection, or sponsorship (Heilmann 2008;Mei and Pearson 2014;Zhu 2014). To our knowledge, the most commonly used measure for the attention of the central government of China is the annual number of policy documents on a specific issue (Chen, Christensen, and Ma 2019;Zhang 2015;Zhu and Zhang 2019;Zhu and Zhao 2018). If the tone of the policy documents is consistently positive, the annual number of policy documents should be able to capture the level of support by the central government (Baumgartner and Jones 1993).…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The Chinese central government officially initiated the ALS reform in 2001 and has issued different numbers of directory policy documents to guide the progress of national reform in each year since then. We use the frequency of directory policy documents on the topic of "administrative licensing" issued by the central government in each year to represent its intention to support the ALS reform and the creation of ALCs (Zhu and Zhang 2019).…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…We further construct a similar measure for provincial-level policy signals as an alternative measurement of top-down supports, given that our theory does not assume that top-down supports must come from the central government. The frequency of provincial-level policy signals is generally lower than the frequency of central-level policy signals, as the provincial policy documents mainly include detailed guidelines for local practices rather than simply replicate the central policy documents (Zhu and Zhang 2019). These top-down policy documents did not coercively require local governments to establish ALCs, although they were consistently supportive of ALCs because of the lack of ideological or political conflicts surrounding ALCs and the visible role of ALCs in attracting business and promoting economic development (Zhu andZhang 2016, 2019).…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…As top-down supports increase, the effects of horizontal pressures on innovation adoption also increase. Local governments may not be able to fully respond to increases in all external pressures because they have limited attention, time, and resources and can handle only limited pressures at a given time (Baumgartner et al 2009;Zhu and Zhang 2019). In particular, local governments may adjust their attention or response to horizontal pressures based on organizational autonomy or environmental uncertainty.…”

Section: Complementary Effect Hypothesismentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Specifically, top-down supports can constrain the discretion of local governments. Research has claimed that top-down interventions can limit the range of structures, strategies, and processes of governments at a low level (Damanpour 1991;McCann, Shipan, and Volden 2015;Zhu and Zhang 2019). When a high-level government directly promotes an innovation, local governments will adopt the same innovation because the former tends to possess political or financial resources that are required by the latter.…”

Section: Complementary Effect Hypothesismentioning

confidence: 99%

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The Moderating Role of Top‐Down Supports in Horizontal Innovation Diffusion

Zhang

Zhu

2019

Public Administration Review

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How do governments respond to multiple types of external pressures under limited resources? Are the effects of different types of diffusional pressures complementary or substitutive? This article approaches these questions by examining how top‐down supports modify the effects of horizontal pressures on local innovation adoption. Top‐down supports may complement or substitute the effects of horizontal pressures given the former's potential influence on perceived innovation advantage and visibility, organizational autonomy, and environmental uncertainty. The empirical analysis based on China's municipal‐level one‐stop governments (administrative licensing centers, or ALCs) from 1997 to 2012 shows that increases in central and provincial supportive policy signals reduce the effects of neighboring municipality adoption on a municipal government's creation of an ALC. Results affirm that the effects of different types of diffusional pressures can be conditional on one another—that is, increases in top‐down policy supports may substitute the effects of horizontal pressures.

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Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Complementary Effect Hypothesismentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Complementary Effect Hypothesismentioning

confidence: 99%

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The Moderating Role of Top‐Down Supports in Horizontal Innovation Diffusion

Zhang

Zhu

2019

Public Administration Review

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Diffusion models over the life cycle of an innovation: A bottom‐up and top‐down synthesis approach

Wang

et al. 2020

Public Admin & Development

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SummaryThe diffusion models tend to be tested individually in isolation and remain the same over time for the studied innovations in the literature. Moreover, there is growing interest to learn from other countries in our current age of globalization. Therefore, this paper chooses the innovation of public resources trading platforms in China to fulfill above literature gaps. We have examined key events and the issuances of related laws and regulations by Chinese governments. Our contributions are twofold: (a) Our analysis and results show that the diffusion models evolve over the different stages of a life cycle of an innovation, contrasting to the literature results that diffusion models remain the same for their studied innovations. Due to major diverse characteristics among different adopter categories over a life cycle of an innovation, we argue that it is appropriate and necessary to apply different diffusion models on different adopter categories, which is missing in the current literature. (b) We find a first bottom‐up and then top‐down synthesis approach as an effective, efficient diffusion process for both fitting local needs (i.e., effective) and adopting innovations rapidly nationwide (i.e., efficient).

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How does policy innovation diffuse among Chinese local governments? A qualitative comparative analysis of River Chief Innovation

Zhang

Wang

2021

Public Admin & Development

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It is well-documented that interlocal learning and competition could drive policy innovation diffusion. However, their interconnection in non-western regimes as China is less explored. Utilizing the method of qualitative comparative analysis on the case of River Chief Innovation, this article intends to explore the multiple conjunctural causation of Chinese policy diffusion and the impacts of central recognition. Our findings suggest that interlocal learning and tournament could intimately stimulate Chinese policy diffusion through different combinations.Different governments would adopt innovation for various reasons in a continuum of diffusion mechanisms, involving the technical learning, the championship-induced learning, the mandate-induced learning, and the innovation tournament. Hence, despite the ongoing centralization under Xi, space for local spontaneous learning remains. We also find that central recognition could activate the interlocal tournament and extend the diffusion continuum to the tournament side. Therefore, it facilitates policy diffusion toward governments that lack learning motivations and promotes the local implementation of central preferences.

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Multiple mechanisms of policy diffusion in China

Cited by 76 publications

References 72 publications

The Moderating Role of Top‐Down Supports in Horizontal Innovation Diffusion

The Moderating Role of Top‐Down Supports in Horizontal Innovation Diffusion

Diffusion models over the life cycle of an innovation: A bottom‐up and top‐down synthesis approach

How does policy innovation diffuse among Chinese local governments? A qualitative comparative analysis of River Chief Innovation

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