IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/gam/jsusta/v10y2018i1p199-d127026.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Bounded Rationality in the Developmental Trajectory of Environmental Target Policy in China, 1972–2016

Author

Listed:
  • Rui Mu

    (Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences, Dalian University of Technology, Linggong Road 2, Ganjingzi District, Dalian 116024, China)

Abstract

This article applies the theoretical notion of “bounded rationality” to understand and to explain the updates of the Environmental Target Policy (ETP) in China during 1972–2016. An analytical framework is built up by combining the phase model and the stream model in policy science in order to trace the longitudinal transformation of the ETP. In addition, the article adopts the “event sequence method” to discover the dynamics of the problem, politics, and policy streams of the target policy and to identify the evolving coupling between the different streams. It shows that China’s ETP has experienced five phases of development. For each phase the central government had its specific bounded rationality to make the crucial decision on the ETP. The decisions on the ETP in different phases were made when policy windows were open with the coupling of the problem, politics, and policy streams. As for the updates of the ETP, we find that the rationalities of the central governments in the five phases were limited by the emergent practices during the ETP implementation, which gave momentum to the central government to seek new solutions and to revise and adapt the ETP.

Suggested Citation

  • Rui Mu, 2018. "Bounded Rationality in the Developmental Trajectory of Environmental Target Policy in China, 1972–2016," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 10(1), pages 1-18, January.
    • Handle: RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:10:y:2018:i:1:p:199-:d:127026
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/10/1/199/pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/10/1/199/
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Andrew Abbott & Angela Tsay, 2000. "Sequence Analysis and Optimal Matching Methods in Sociology," Sociological Methods & Research, , vol. 29(1), pages 3-33, August.
    2. Poole, Marshall Scott & Van de Ven, Andrew H. & Dooley, Kevin & Holmes, Michael E., 2000. "Organizational Change and Innovation Processes: Theory and Methods for Research," OUP Catalogue, Oxford University Press, number 9780195131987.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Dan Zhang & Fan Fan & Sang Do Park, 2019. "Network Analysis of Actors and Policy Keywords for Sustainable Environmental Governance: Focusing on Chinese Environmental Policy," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 11(15), pages 1-29, July.
    2. Shahbaz, Muhammad & Destek, Mehmet Akif & Dong, Kangyin & Jiao, Zhilun, 2021. "Time-varying impact of financial development on carbon emissions in G-7 countries: Evidence from the long history," Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Elsevier, vol. 171(C).
    3. Khan, Zeeshan & Ali, Shahid & Dong, Kangyin & Li, Rita Yi Man, 2021. "How does fiscal decentralization affect CO2 emissions? The roles of institutions and human capital," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 94(C).
    4. Maxwell Chukwudi Udeagha & Marthinus Christoffel Breitenbach, 2023. "Revisiting the nexus between fiscal decentralization and CO2 emissions in South Africa: fresh policy insights," Financial Innovation, Springer;Southwestern University of Finance and Economics, vol. 9(1), pages 1-46, December.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Rui Mu & Wouter Spekkink, 2018. "A Running Start or a Clean Slate? How a History of Cooperation Affects the Ability of Cities to Cooperate on Environmental Governance," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 10(6), pages 1-22, June.
    2. Frank Boons & Wouter Spekkink & Wenting Jiao, 2014. "A Process Perspective on Industrial Symbiosis," Journal of Industrial Ecology, Yale University, vol. 18(3), pages 341-355, May.
    3. Rui Mu, 2018. "Role of Law, Position of Actor and Linkage of Policy in China’s National Environmental Governance System, 1972–2016," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 10(4), pages 1-16, April.
    4. Tamer Khraisha & Keren Arthur, 2018. "Can we have a general theory of financial innovation processes? A conceptual review," Financial Innovation, Springer;Southwestern University of Finance and Economics, vol. 4(1), pages 1-27, December.
    5. Jeffery S. McMullen & Dimo Dimov, 2013. "Time and the Entrepreneurial Journey: The Problems and Promise of Studying Entrepreneurship as a Process," Journal of Management Studies, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 50(8), pages 1481-1512, December.
    6. Júlia Mikolai & Hill Kulu, 2019. "Union dissolution and housing trajectories in Britain," Demographic Research, Max Planck Institute for Demographic Research, Rostock, Germany, vol. 41(7), pages 161-196.
    7. Gayoung Kim & Woo Jin Lee, 2021. "The Venture Firm’s Ambidexterity: Do Transformational Leaders Boost Organizational Learning for Venture Growth?," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(15), pages 1-15, July.
    8. Geels, Frank W. & Ayoub, Martina, 2023. "A socio-technical transition perspective on positive tipping points in climate change mitigation: Analysing seven interacting feedback loops in offshore wind and electric vehicles acceleration," Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Elsevier, vol. 193(C).
    9. Jain, Sanjay, 2020. "Fumbling to the future? Socio-technical regime change in the recorded music industry," Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Elsevier, vol. 158(C).
    10. Fixson, Sebastian K. & Park, Jin-Kyu, 2008. "The power of integrality: Linkages between product architecture, innovation, and industry structure," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 37(8), pages 1296-1316, September.
    11. Kingshuk K. Sinha & Andrew H. Van de Ven, 2005. "Designing Work Within and Between Organizations," Organization Science, INFORMS, vol. 16(4), pages 389-408, August.
    12. Kriechbaum, Michael & Posch, Alfred & Hauswiesner, Angelika, 2021. "Hype cycles during socio-technical transitions: The dynamics of collective expectations about renewable energy in Germany," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 50(9).
    13. Kim, Yusoon & Choi, Thomas Y., 2021. "Supplier relationship strategies and outcome dualities: An empirical study of embeddedness perspective," International Journal of Production Economics, Elsevier, vol. 232(C).
    14. Yuanyuan Zhao, 2014. "Interpreting Innovation Dynamics with Complexity Theory," International Journal of Innovation and Technology Management (IJITM), World Scientific Publishing Co. Pte. Ltd., vol. 11(05), pages 1-18.
    15. Kleinepier, Tom & van Ham, Maarten, 2018. "The Temporal Dynamics of Neighborhood Disadvantage in Childhood and Subsequent Problem Behavior in Adolescence," IZA Discussion Papers 11397, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    16. Gjoko Stamenkov, 2023. "Recommendations for improving research quality: relationships among constructs, verbs in hypotheses, theoretical perspectives, and triangulation," Quality & Quantity: International Journal of Methodology, Springer, vol. 57(3), pages 2923-2946, June.
    17. Udo Staber, 2008. "Network Evolution in Cultural Industries," Industry and Innovation, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 15(5), pages 569-578.
    18. Okka Zimmermann & Nicole Hameister, 2019. "Stable cohabitational unions increase quality of life: Retrospective analysis of partnership histories also reveals gender differences," Demographic Research, Max Planck Institute for Demographic Research, Rostock, Germany, vol. 40(24), pages 657-692.
    19. Ram Kamath & Aitziber Elola & Frans Hermans, 2023. "The green-restructuring of clusters: investigating a biocluster's transition using a complex adaptive system model," European Planning Studies, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 31(9), pages 1842-1867, September.
    20. Thomas, Llewellyn D.W. & Autio, Erkko & Gann, David M., 2022. "Processes of ecosystem emergence," Technovation, Elsevier, vol. 115(C).

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:10:y:2018:i:1:p:199-:d:127026. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: MDPI Indexing Manager (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.mdpi.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.