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Organizational Evolution of China's Third-Front Enterprises Shows Obvious Punctuated Equilibrium

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Organizational Evolution of China's Third-Front Enterprises Shows Obvious Punctuated Equilibrium Organizational Evolution of China’s Third-front Enterprises: Cases Study on Aosheng Group GUO Dong Thesis submitted as partial requirement for the conferral of Doctor of Management Supervisor: Professor Henriques Duarte, Assistant Professor, ISCTE University Institute of Lisbon Co-supervisor: Professor JING Runtian, Professor, University of Electronic Science and Technology of China, School of Management and Economics May, 2013 - Spine – a’s Third-front Enterprises: GUO Dong Cases Study on Aosheng Group Organizational Evolution of Chin Organizational Evolution of China’s Third-front Enterprises: Cases Study on Aosheng Group GUO Dong Thesis submitted as partial requirement for the conferral of Doctor of Management Supervisor: Professor Henriques Duarte, Assistant Professor, ISCTE University Institute of Lisbon Co-supervisor: Professor JING Runtian, Professor, University of Electronic Science and Technology of China, School of Management and Economics May, 2013 Declaration I declare that this thesis does not incorporate without acknowledgement any material previously submitted for a degree or diploma in any university and that to the best of my knowledge it does not contain any material previously published or written by another person except where due reference is made in the text. Signed Date _________________ Name: _____________ 作者申明 本人郑重申明：除了论文致谢中明确说明并致以谢意的部分外，所呈交的论文不 包含任何他人或作者本人已用于获得任何教育机构的学位和证书而使用过的材 料。同时尽我所知，除了文中特别加以标注引用的内容外，本论文不包含任何其 他个人或集体已经发表或撰写的成果作品。 作者签名： 日期： 姓名(拼音) Abstract China's "Third-front" enterprises emerged in a specific historical period and specific institutional environment and played an important role in China's national defense construction and Chinese history. Due to changes in the world political and economic situations and domestic economic development, the development of Third-front companies face many challenges: support from central government have changed; they can’t depend only on government and military orders; need to face market-competition. Therefore, a comprehensive study on the pattern of the Third-front enterprises’ conversion of military-oriented technologies for civil will allow to have a theoretical explanation of the internal forces of the organization evolution as well as their interactions with external factors. Based on the punctuated equilibrium theory, applying case study approach, Aosheng Group is selected as the research case because it is a typical and successful representative of Third-front enterprises. Qualitative analysis is the main method while quantitative evaluation was used as an auxiliary evaluation method. There are four steps included in the process of data analysis. At first, all data come from all possible ways are divided into two groups. One group is about macro environment, the other is about the evolutionary process of Aosheng. Then, the macro environment is analyzed from three facets such as political environment, economic environment, and market environment. Third, the four stages of Aosheng’s evolution are identified. And the changes of organizational structure, performance, strategic positioning, change pressure, and organizational inertia at each stage are analyzed in detail. Finally, the evolutionary patterns emerged from the results of previous analyses are identified. The rules of evolution are proposed as some theoretical propositions. The current research will advance the researches on Third-front enterprises, changing the perspective from outside of organizations to within organizations. The research also provides appropriate policy-making and business practices recommendations for policy-makers and business executives. Finally, the limitations of the study and future research directions are discussed. Key words: organizational evolution, Third-front enterprises, case study, military-civilian integration JEL: M1 Resumo As empresas chinesas da “Terceira-Frente” surgiram num contexto histórico e institucional específico e jogaram um papel importante na construção da defesa da China e na sua história. Devido a mudanças económicas, políticas e do desenvolvimento económico doméstico enfrentam vários desafios: mudanças no apoio governamental; não podem depender exclusivamente das encomendas do governo e dos militares; necessidade de enfrentar a competição de Mercado. Assim um estudo compreensivo do padrão de conversão das tecnologias militares para civis permitirá uma explicação teórica das forças internas da evolução da organização e das suas interacções com factores externos. Baseada na teoria do equilíbrio pontuado e aplicando um estudo de caso, seleccionamos o grupo Aosheng por ser típico e representar um caso de sucesso das empresas da Terceira-Frente. A análise qualitativa foi o método principal e a análise quantitativa foi usada apenas de forma suplementar. A análise de dados foi efectuada em quatro fases. Na primeira a informação das diferentes fontes foi dividida em dois grupos. Um grupo relativo a informação externa e outro relativo ao processo evolutivo de Aosheng. Depois o macro ambiente foi analisado em três vertentes como sejam a política, económica e o mercado. Depois quatro estádios de desenvolvimento do grupo foram identificados. Em cada estádio foi analisado em detalhe a estrutura organizacional, desempenho, posicionamento estratégico, pressão para a mudança e o posicionamento estratégico. Finalmente os padrões emergentes das análises anteriores foram identificados. As lógicas de evolução foram apresentadas bem como algumas proposições teóricas. A presente investigação contribui para as investigações nas empresas da Terceira-Frente, mudando a perspectiva do exterior para o interior das organizações. A investigação também proporcionou recomendações para os decisores políticos e para os gestores. Finalmente foram apresentadas as limitações do estudo e futuras perspectivas de investigação. Palavras-chave: evolução organizacional, Empresas da Terceira-Frente, estudo de caso, integração militar e civil JEL: M1 Acknowledgements I always believe in one ancient Chinese maxim “Read ten thousand books, traveling thousands of miles”. Only by this way, can one improve himself. The experience of studying for a doctorate has changed my world view. And I am sure this appreciated experience will still meaningful for my future life. This is one of the most important and valuable periods of my life! Facing the thesis draft which is close to be finished, my heart is fully filled with gratitude. I have to remember my respected supervisors and professors from both ISCTE University Institute of Lisbon and School of Management and Economics of UESTC for your selfless and wonderful instruction and teaching, the DBA project members, and my dear classmates and good friends for your selfless help. Below, let me present my gratitude directly to you: First, I would like to thank my supervisors professor Henrique Duarte and professor JING Runtian. Your profound knowledge, superb teaching level, rigorous studying attitude and modesty character are well worth learning in my lifetime. Your gave me detailed guidance and selfless help during the whole process of my research, such as proposing research, research designing, data collecting, structuring thesis structure, revising the thesis and so on. I can never finish my research without any help from you. You were, are, and will be my respected tutors not only for learning and scientific researching but also for my whole life. Thank you! I would like to thank teachers from both ISCTE University Institute of Lisbon and School of Management and Economics of UESTC. You gave me wonderful teaching which led me into the hall of management theory to pick up scientific shell beads! They are professor ZENG Yong, professor MA Yongkai, Professor LI Shiming, professor LU Ruoyu, professor YING Lu and other professors who I cannot list all of them here. I would like to thank all members of DBA project! Your hard work is essential for me to successfully complete my study. They are XIAO Wen, SUN Ping and CHEN Yang and others who I cannot list here. I would like to thank all the leaders and staff of Aosheng Group. Only with your support and help, can I proceed smoothly. You gave me all possible useful information without any reservation. You helped me to do so much evaluation. You spent your holidays on discussing any needed questions. You exhibited enthusiasm and excellent quality to people around you. Your leadership skills and management experience will be worth my lifelong learning. I would like to thank all the classmates for the happy and valuable time that we shared together. Thank all good friends for your selfless help without which I would go through much more setbacks. Every discussion with you had brought inspiration to me. Finally, I would like to pay my respect to the experts and scholars who are going to read and appraise this doctoral thesis. Thank you all! Best wishes to you and your family! Contents Chapter 1: Introduction ............................................................................................................ 1 1.1 Research Background............................................................................................. 2 1.1.1 History of the Third-front................................................................................. 2 1.1.2 Conversion of Third-front Enterprises............................................................. 5 1.2 Research Questions ................................................................................................ 9 1.3 Research Design..................................................................................................
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