Surviving local government policy intervention: the case of embedded markets within a historical cultural cluster

• Published date: 01 August 2017
• Author: Yuting Jane Zhuang,André M. Everett
• Date: 01 August 2017
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.1002/pa.1612

■Academic Paper

Surviving local government policy

intervention: the case of embedded

markets within a historical cultural cluster

Yuting Jane Zhuang and André M. Everett*

Department of Management, University of Otago, Dunedin, New Zealand

China’s name derives from “china”(porcelain), and “China”(pronounced as “Changnan”) is the former name of

Jingdezhen, thecapital city of porcelain—throughwhose exports of “blue-and-white”china the country gained interna-

tional renown. The 2200-year-old porcelain cluster in Jingdezhen has survived through multiple empires with distinct

policies towards the development of the city’s dominant industry. This in-depth case study examines interactions be-

tween local government and the businesscommunity to discover the effectiveness of policiesand the perception of those

policies by entrepreneurs throughqualitative research employingGrounded Theory methodology. The centralizedinsti-

tutional structure in China contributes significantly to the findings of a total split of “government action”from “public

perception”and leads to new considerations for policy-makers to redesign theireconomic development strategies and

plans to engenderreal effects in the desired direction.This paper also providesan exemplary lesson for historicalcultural

clusters seekingto escape from unfavorable policy interference. Copyright © 2016 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

INTRODUCTION

Implementation of the “Reform and Opening Up”

policy, commencing in 1978, gave the world the

chance to enter China while China gained access to

the world, creating significant new opportunities

for businesses and green fields for entrepreneurs.

China was even given a new nickname: the World

Factory (K. Zhang, 2006). As its economy and soci-

ety have opened, China has become more sensitive

to protecting its national heritage. The creativity of

contemporary Chinese people has become a major

concern of the intellectuals (Tillman, 2005), who

worry about culturally innovative industries not

obtaining enough insight from their traditions. Ben-

efits from studying Chinese traditional culture are

not limited in their application to mainland China’s

economic and social development, as Chinese

culture has substantial influence in Japan, Korea,

Taiwan,and countrie s with a large proportion of eth-

nic Chinese residents (such as Singapore, Malaysia,

Indonesia, Thailand, Vietnam, and the Philippines).

The development pattern of contemporary China

under communist governance has been quite differ-

ent from that of the other countriesmentioned earlier.

In order to gain a betterunderstanding of itself, China

needs to explore its existence with a decent under-

standing of the past; discovering what has been lost

in its industrialization over the past 30years, recreat-

ing it, and planting the seeds of the past in its devel-

opment strategies for the future (Zhuang, 2008).

This research is based on a previous historiography

research project exploring the life cycle of the

Jingdezhen porcelain cluster to answer a broad ques-

tion: How has the Jingdezhen porcelain cluster suc-

cessfully functioned over the long term as a cultural

cluster? The most popular definition of “cluster”in

the management field states that a cluster is “ageo-

graphically proximate group of interconnected com-

panies and associated institutions in a particular

*Correspondence to: André M. Everett, University of Otago, De-

partment of Management, Box 56, Dunedin 9054, New Zealand.

E-mail: Andre.Everett@otago.ac.nz

Copyright © 2016 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. 1 of 13

Journal of Public Affairs

Volume 17 Number 3 e1612 (2017)

Published online 12 April 2016 in Wiley Online Library

(www.wileyonlinelibrary.com) DOI: 10.1002/pa.1612