Institutional logic dynamics: private firm financing in Ningbo (1912–2008)

Abstract

This study examines the evolution of institutional logics and private firm financing practices in Ningbo, a commercial seaport city in China where the private sector has prospered for centuries, during 1912–2008. We argue that a three-fold institutionalisation process becomes evident when we view changes since 1912; namely institutionalisation, deinstitutionalisation and reinstitutionalisation of entrepreneurship and the associated financing of private firms. Two competing institutional logics, community and market logics, with the former being dominant but gradually giving way to the latter over time in the first stage (the Republican era of China), were eliminated in the second stage (the centrally-planned economy era), but have re-emerged and co-existed in the third stage (the economic reform era). However, unlike in the past, community logic is now subordinate and informal rather than dominant and formal, indicating that, although cyclical patterns are observed, institutional paths are not uniform.