From Coal Mining to Coal Chemicals? Unpacking New Path Creation in an Old Industrial Region of Transitional China

Abstract

AbstractThis paper examines the path‐creation mechanism of the coal‐chemical industry and its relatedness to the old path of the coal mining industry in an old industrial region of China. It reveals that the rise of the new path benefits from the old path to a limited extent. The strong multi‐scalar structured path dependence upon the coal industry fundamentally constrained local actors to mobilize resources from the old path for new industrial options. The findings show that on the basis of local (pre)existing fertilizer production assets, the new path was created by a combination of market‐oriented state‐owned enterprise ownership reforms, market induced trans‐local entrepreneurship and local state‐led developmental strategies. This form of path creation contributes to the extant literature, presenting a complex, multi‐scalar, and multi‐actor manner of industrial restructuring involving dynamic agencies that is not merely historically conditioned by place‐specific assets and structures but also affected by the changing extra‐regional political‐institutional environment.