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Performance‐oriented management has been proposed as a remedy to policy implementation failure, which is a persuasive woe globally. Recent scholarship on policy implementation through performance measurement and management focuses on client‐oriented services, with less attention paid to the inadequacy of performance indicators in covering all desirable policy goals and in incentivizing all government officials in a non‐client‐oriented service arena, for instance, environmental governance. Based on station‐level water quality data before and after the implementation of China's Huai River Basin Water Quality Accountability Program, we utilize a difference‐in‐differences (DiD) method to investigate how various water quality indicators in the Huai River Basin (HRB) have responded to the new personnel‐based performance measurement system which aimed to enhance environmental policy implementation at the local level. We show that the program succeeded in motivating government officials to meet targeted indicators, but it also led to the worsening of non‐targeted ones. We also find that the impact of this personnel‐based program was sensitive to personal and contextual factors: it affected younger local officials more strongly than those who were older and saw a more limited prospect for promotion. These findings provide evidence for the effectiveness of the personnel‐based measurement system, which may be considered by other countries, particularly those with authoritarian regimes and significant policy implementation failures. At the same time, complementary measures such as institutional arrangements that discover and report omitted important performance aspects, should be considered to safeguard the possible pitfalls of the system. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As a result of multiple waves of administrative reforms in the past three decades, China's civil service has become more professionalized. Yet public employees appear to have become increasingly dissatisfied in recent years. Based on questionnaire surveys and interviews with environmental enforcement officials in a southern city, this paper traces changes in the job satisfaction levels of these officials between 2000 and 2014. It shows that satisfaction with the extrinsic rewards received and overall job satisfaction declined during this period. These downward trends partly reflected the increasingly challenging institutional environments faced by the officials: rising political and societal demands, inadequate fiscal and personnel resources, and limited enforcement authority. In addition, as the officials became more highly educated and professionalized, mission match became a stronger antecedent of job satisfaction. These findings suggest the importance of meeting the motivational needs of a more professionalized workforce. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In an unprecedented global crisis, like the COVID‐19 pandemic, when vertical global governance plays a relatively minor role, government leaders must obtain policy information cues from other governments' behaviors horizontally. This study builds on the policy diffusion literature to examine the distinct role of geographic, cultural, and institutional peers in influencing a country's policy adoptions throughout a diffusion episode. We theorize that in the case of COVID‐19, policy‐culture fit enhances policy learning, leading cultural cues to exert a more pronounced diffusion influence than geographic and institutional cues over time. Our empirical analysis leverages worldwide data tracking the daily adoption of nine universal COVID‐19 non‐pharmaceutical policies from January 1, 2020 to June 1, 2021 in nearly 100 countries. We show that geographic and institutional proximity are initial sources of policy cues affecting adoption. But their effects fade over time while that of cultural cues grows in the later stage of a diffusion episode, illustrating the role of policy learning fueled by cultural fit. This research deepens our understanding of policy diffusion dynamics, shedding light on the role of national culture in policymaking and design in comparative policy studies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study combines insights from the policy uncertainty literature and neo-institutional theory to examine corporate performance in implementing a government-sponsored voluntary environmental program (VEP) during 2004–2012 in Guangzhou, China. In this regulatory context, characterized by rapid policy changes, corporate performance in VEPs is affected by government surveillance, policy uncertainty, and peer pressures. Specifically, if VEP participants have experienced more government surveillance, they tend to perform better in program implementation. Such positive influence of government surveillance is particularly evident among those joining under high and low, rather than moderate uncertainty. Participants also perform better if they belong to an industry with more certified VEP firms, but worse if they are located in a regulatory jurisdiction with more certified VEP firms. At a moderate level of policy uncertainty, within-industry imitation is most likely to occur but within-jurisdiction imitation is least likely to occur. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study examines how various aspects of institutional context, including the regulatory environment, government affiliation, and government work experience, shape environmental nongovernmental organizations’ (eNGOs) managerial networking in China. Data from a nationwide survey of 267 eNGOs and in-depth interviews in 2014-2015 are analyzed. The findings show that China’s restrictive political environment suppresses eNGOs’ peer and business networking but is not associated with government networking. Compared with government-organized NGOs (GONGOs), civic eNGOs network more with peers, businesses, and government agencies. Furthermore, eNGOs with leaders having government work experience conduct more government networking. Theoretically, these findings point to the importance of the political and institutional context of managerial networking. Empirically, this study provides the first set of quantitative data analysis demonstrating how institutional factors affect NGO managerial networking under authoritarianism. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A lack of clear political commitment together with confusing rules and enforcement often characterize the institutional context of policy implementation and regulatory compliance in developing countries. By connecting such contextual features to existing models of policy implementation and regulatory compliance, we examine how regulatory factors are related to basic and proactive corporate environmental management practices in the Pearl River Delta region in China. Drawing on data derived from both a survey and in‐depth interviews, we show that a perception of clear political commitment to environmental protection across multiple government levels and units is positively associated with business efforts in basic environmental practices, regardless of the specific enforcement intensity. Nevertheless, a perception of clear political commitment is not related to proactive environmental practices. Conversely, a perception of policy ambiguity, in the form of confusing regulatory standards and enforcement, is negatively associated with corporate efforts in both basic and proactive environmental practices; yet, intensive inspections mitigate these negative associations with policy ambiguity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines how stakeholder demand and compliance capacity jointly shape corporate environmental coping strategies and subsequently environmental protection practices. A four-dimensional classification of coping strategies—formalism, accommodation, referencing, and self-determination—is conceptualized. Drawing on survey and interview data collected from manufacturing enterprises in China between 2010 and 2012, the paper shows that compared with formalism and accommodation, coping strategies of referencing and self-determination are associated with stronger environmental protection practices. Enterprises adjust their coping strategies by taking into account the constraints defined by both their internal and external environments. The results also demonstrate the potential synergetic effects of state and non-state stakeholders working together in promoting better corporate environmental coping strategies and environmental practices in China. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The nonprofit sector has become an arena of increased political contestation. Rather than being shaped passively by global trends and broader power relationships among social classes and organizations, the nonprofit sector and the larger civil society have increasingly become forces shaping social and political developments. To account for how these forces unfold in different countries, one needs to go beyond social origins theory, the power-distributional account, and sociological institutionalism and draw on concepts from historical institutionalism that explicitly consider how dynamic interactions between institutional forces and long-term historical changes shape patterns of political contestation. By examining the developmental trajectories of environmental NGOs in South Korea, this article explains how political contestation—embedded within institutional and historical processes of critical junctures and path dependence—may shape developmental trajectories of the nonprofit sector. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This paper examines two cases of collective resistance involving partnerships between local grassroots organisations and external environmental NGOs against government-sanctioned land use policies in South Korea. In both cases, the partnerships used apparently similar strategies of resistance in response to similar institutional pressures in similar physical circumstances, but the outcomes of the two collective movements differed. In the case of Daeji, the resistance movement succeeded by transforming its local cause into a broader environmental one, appealing to stakeholders in the larger society. Reinforced by goal congruence between the partnering organisations, the movement was able to gain regulative legitimacy through co-optation and influence strategies for normative and cognitive legitimacy from the larger society. In the case of Won-Dong, plagued by a lack of goal congruence between partnering organisations, the resistance movement failed to secure the necessary regulative legitimacy in the absence of normative and cognitive legitimacy. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This paper examines how configurations of external support factors have evolved alongside governance reform in recent years and how these evolving configurations have affected regulatory enforcement in four counties in Guangdong Province in China. Based on in-depth interviews with leading officials in the local environmental protection bureaus (EPBs), we show that there have been increases in government and societal support for local EPBs in their regulatory work, thanks partly to a number of recent governance reform efforts, but many problems have remained. Based on a questionnaire survey of enforcement officials, we examine how the perceptions of government and societal support are related to EPB officials’ self-perception of effectiveness. It is found that both local government support and societal support have an influence on enforcement officials’ self-assessment of effectiveness, but the relationships varied considerably depending on various dimensions of effectiveness and the patterns of interactions between government and societal support. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

This paper examines the potential role of civic environmental NGOs in China's democratisation. Based on interviews with 31 NGO officials, the paper examines the origins, structures, and functions of civic environmental NGOs in China. It also examines how various political and resource constraints have shaped their development. While having made progress in organising educational campaigns and specific conservation projects, civic environmental NGOs have been less successful in influencing government decisions and official behaviours. Most recently, some NGOs have made limited progress on these fronts by maintaining a largely non-oppositional stance towards government and by utilising various formal and information channels for influencing government decisions. NGO leaders will have to negotiate with different party-state entities in defining their precise roles in the political process. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The governing institutions in China have been undergoing many subtle transformations, especially in the past decade and a half, partly as a response to various challenges posed by the rapidly changing socio-economic landscapes. Many of these institutional transformations, together with related economic changes, have had an impact on environmental management work. Drawing on interviews with local Environmental Protection Bureau (EPB) officials in five cities in Guangdong Province this article examines how their work has been affected by four sets of changes – (1) the introduction of the new system of ‘two separate lines for revenues and expenses’, in which local EPBs are no longer allowed to retain a portion of the pollution fees and fines they collect; (2) the increased spinning off of core functions from EPBs to service and enterprise organisations; (3) the introduction of a new environmental quality administrative leadership responsibility system; and (4) the gradual disappearance of state-owned enterprises. These changes can potentially create a more politically independent, but more accountable, administrative system for carrying out environmental management work. Yet many challenges remain that will limit the capacity of the Chinese environmental management system. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Democratization in Korea since 1987 has led to the gradual establishment of a diverse set of institutional arrangements—competitive electoral systems, local autonomy, freedom of the press, and freedom of association— that facilitate the articulation of diffuse environmental interests in policymaking processes. Yet, as illustrated by the cases of the Youngwol Dam project and the Wichon Industrial Complex, the policy-making system is still unsettled by numerous environmental protests and by difficulties in resolving distributional conflicts among different groups and communities. To resolve these difficulties, Korea needs to overcome some adverse legacies from its authoritarian era and to develop multiple channels and mechanisms for citizen participation in policy-making and for conflict resolution among different groups and communities. The experience of Korea illustrates the complex dynamics between democratization and environmental policy-making. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Describes the democratization and environmental politics in Taiwan. Literature on democratization; Evolution of protest movement; Regime responses to protest; Factors explaining protest outcome; Industrialization factors; Issues affecting distribution and resolution; Relationships between institutions.

Focuses on group lending programs or group-based microlending in the United States. Strategies for the alleviation of poverty; Emergence of group lending; Information on group lending.

Focuses on Taiwan's informal credit markets and economic development. Needs of medium and small enterprises; Enforcement and incentive problems; Economic role of informal credit markets; Complementarity between formal and informal credit markets; Government regulations; Financial sector reform.

Examines the institutional constraints of China's environmental management system. Information on some studies of China's environmental problems; Details on the environmental management system established in post-Mao China; Data on environmental regulations in Guangzhou; Reference to some of China's enforcement problems.

California's landmark 2014 Sustainable Groundwater Management Act (SGMA) requires local officials to form new Groundwater Sustainability Agencies (GSAs) and to write new groundwater sustainability plans capable of eliminating overdraft within 20 years. To assess progress achieved during SGMA's first five years of implementation, we surveyed officials who manage or participate in GSA governance. The most common obstacles to GSA formation have involved horizontal and network governance issues such as too many diverse interests or lack of trust among stakeholders. The most common obstacles to groundwater planning include a lack of financial resources and the requirement to coordinate plans among GSAs in the same basin. Respondents usually report that their own GSA performs well on seven measures of good governance, such as representing all major stakeholders, granting members sufficient power, and generating trusted data for decision making. On the other hand, many GSA managers acknowledge that some types of stakeholders remain underrepresented in the governing structure despite SGMA's mandate to "consider the interests of all beneficial uses and users of groundwater." Overall, most respondents are optimistic that SGMA will enhance groundwater sustainability locally and statewide. If successfully implemented and fully funded, SGMA could become a model worldwide for sustainable resource governance that combines top‐down mandates and local incentives. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper compares the key arguments of ecological modernization theory (EMT) with the reality of recent environmental reform in China. Based on data gathered from a survey and in-depth interviews with executives from Hong Kong-based enterprises operating in Guangdong province, we examine the changing roles of government, market, and civil society actors in the reform process, focusing on various types of pressures these actors have exerted on business enterprises. Compatible with Mol's (2006) conjectures, ecological concerns have gradually gained a foothold in existing political, economic, and to a lesser extent, social institutions. Yet, the relevant actors and their patterns of interactions differ from what EMT generalizes from Western European experiences. Specifically, local governments are assuming a more formalized relationship with firms in regulatory enforcement. Among market actors, organizational buyers along the supply chain have exerted more noticeable pressures on manufacturing firms than industrial associations and individual consumers. Civil society, while remaining less of an institutionalized actor in the environmental policy process, appears to pose a perceptible threat to at least some firms. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

How do stakeholder demands in response to environmental impacts and top management (TMT) motivations for environmental protection (EP) influence the integration of environmental management programmes within corporations in China? Substantial differences are observed in the way different stakeholder groups influence TMTs' motivations for EP. Local government demands for EP are associated with perceptions of risk from noncompliance. Industry pressure for EP not only has a broader effect but also enhances a belief in the 'business-case' for such programmes, and TMT's commitment to EP. Yet societal pressure is associated with a reduction of enterprise motivations for EP. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]