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Referee, Sponsor or Coach: How Does the Government Harness the Development of Social Enterprises? A Case Study of Chengdu, China

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Abstract

This paper examines how the government harnesses the development of social enterprises. Drawing on an in-depth qualitative study in Chengdu City, China, we find that institution building, financial supporting, incubation developing, systematical cultivating and resource matchmaking are the main strategies employed by the municipal government to promote the development of social enterprises, whereupon we argue that besides the role as referee and sponsor which are the governments’ traditional roles in western countries, the government in China also play a role of coach in harnessing the development of social enterprises. This paper contributes to the literature by theorizing how administrative forces affect the growth of hybrid organizations and also contributes to providing empirical evidence of the institutional environment of social enterprises in China.

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Notes

  1. The China Charity Fair is an exchange exhibition of charitable projects organized by the Ministry of Civil Affairs of the People’s Republic of China and other departments, and is one of the most authoritative charity exchange and promotion platforms in China.

  2. China’s administrative districts are divided into four levels, which are provinces, cities, districts (counties), and townships (towns). Chengdu consists of 20 districts (counties), one of which is WH District. Similarly, the WJ District, JY District, CH District, etc., mentioned below are all districts of Chengdu.

  3. Since China adopted the tax-sharing reform in 1994, part of the corporate tax has been turned over to the state while the rest has been kept in local governments.

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  1. China Center for International Knowledge on Development, 225 Chaoyangmennei Street, Beijing, China

    Ruoyun Hua

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  1. Ruoyun Hua
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Hua, R. Referee, Sponsor or Coach: How Does the Government Harness the Development of Social Enterprises? A Case Study of Chengdu, China. Voluntas 32, 1054–1065 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11266-021-00379-x

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