Multiple Constraints And The Systems Of Action: The Practice Of Alien Chambers Of Commerce In Hangzhou

Most of the studies on the Chamber of Commerce tend to use a certain conceptto make a “single and stereotyped” categorization of its nature and function and itsrelationship with other organizations. However, such studies distort the truth of theChamber of Commerce for they fail to recognize the complexity of reality. In order topromote the understanding on the Chamber of Commerce, this paper, with “actionsystem” as the unit of analysis, drawing on an analytical framework of “the actionsystem oriented to multiple problems” and using the methods of interviews, theinterpretations of institutions and the statistical analysis of activities, examines andstudies the interest structures and the combination of means and conditions thatrelevant actors have mobilized and faced to establish the corresponding camp relations,specific forms and activity adjustment of the action system, therefore, the alienchambers of commerce can hope to realize their legalization, governance of powerrelations and concrete functions. The study finds out that:1. There exists a detached interest structure between the state and the alienchambers of commerce in the legalization of the latter, thus a type of confrontationalaction system is formed. However, two major means adopted by the stateadministrative authorities, i.e. law—result control and politics—process control leadto the two different ways—formal compliance and selective compliance—to cope withthe state regulations.2. There is a contradictory interest structure between different actors: the state,Chamber of Commerce, officials of the Chamber of Commerce and members in thegovernance of power relations of the alien chambers of commerce, and therefore, a typeof competitive and cooperative action system is formed. In its specific forms, theformal power relations of the alien chambers of commerce are converged due to theinstitutional pressure from the state. On the one hand, the constraints of theinstitutional means and technical conditions inside the alien chambers of commerceendow the governance of the power relations in the following ways: relay licensing,limited power control, centralization of the director and the secretary-general and thecombination of volunteerism and relevance compensation. These constraints includethe following.(1) Members influence the Chamber of Commerce by contributingmembership fees and participation in or withdrawal from the Chamber of Commerce,however there lacks an effective means of supervising and controlling the officials of the Chamber of Commerce.(2) The officials of the Chamber of Commerce pay moremembership fees than members; sometimes they provide funding to the Chamber ofCommerce, and exercise the powers of the Chamber of Commerce.(3) The Chamberof Commerce has the power to assess and allocate certain prestige and resources.3.Three concrete functional orientations of group interest, win-win interest andaltruistic interest are formed due to the joint effects of the institutional and technicalfactors. However, the realization of every interest leads to different concrete actionsystems with the restrictions from institutional and technical factors. Among them, thegroup interest of the alien chamber of commerce leads to the joint guarantee creditmodel, mediator for conflicts and disputes, social support networks, a corporate body,salons, professional training platforms, and information communication platforms. Thewin-win interests between the alien chambers of commerce and local governments arerealized in reciprocity and exchange. The guided mobilization and active dedication aretwo specific forms to realize the positive altruistic interest. The negative altruisticinterest mainly depends on the external control by the forces of the state, society and thepublic, but there lacks an effective means of internal control.4. Finally, the statistical analysis of the activity data on two alien chambers ofcommerce in Hangzhou shows that the activities of alien chambers of commercemainly focus on two types: those of the group interests and the win-win interests,among which, major reasons are stable institutional factors (regulation from businessauthorities), some favorable technical conditions (capital networks, cooperationsbetween the alien chambers of commerce in investment and fund introduction) andsome unfavorable technical conditions (the operation of the Chamber of Commercemainly depends on the stratified membership fees). All the studies show that theorganization tackles the changes with structures and strategies and adjusting activitieswhile the structures and strategies keep the same for self survival and development.As a result, the paper concludes that the action system of the alien chambers ofcommerce is not one but several, every action system is targeted at solving a matter of survival..In dealing with every problem, the types of interest structure between the relevantactors shape the camp relationship of the action system and the combination of meansand conditions utilized and faced by relevant actors restrict the concrete forms of theaction system, while the joint efforts of the interest structure and means and conditioncombinations promote the organization to adjust its activity allocation.