The Impact of Community Governance Participation on the Sustainable Development of Chinese Property Management Companies

This thesis explores how Chinese property management companies’ (CPMCs) involvement in community governance affects corporate sustainability, using neo-institutional theory (NIT) as a framework. A qualitative case study approach is adopted, incorporating thematic analysis of interviews with property managers, Local Street Office officials, Residents’ Committee members, industry experts, academics, and residents representatives. Thematic analysis reveals four key themes: CPMCs’ participatory roles in community governance, the institutional pressures they face, their institutional entrepreneurship pathways, and their contributions to corporate sustainability. The findings show that CPMCs operate within a complex institutional environment shaped by regulative, normative, and cultural-cognitive pressures, alongside contradictions such as efficiency, nonadaptability, misaligned interests and interinstitutional incompatibility. These institutional field characteristics intersect with CPMCs’ social positions, enabling divergent change through institutional entrepreneurship. The study develops a novel typology of CPMCs highlighting their social positions and strategic variations in their responses to institutional environments. Through institutional entrepreneurship pathways, CPMCs adapt to governance challenges, strengthen alignment with sustainability goals, foster stakeholder trust, and drive innovation, as evaluated through the Triple Bottom Line (TBL) framework. The study introduces the Institutional Community Governance and Corporate Sustainability Framework, which bridges community governance participation and corporate sustainability. It provides theoretical contributions to NIT and offers practical recommendations for CPMCs, policymakers and practitioners with strengthening community governance collaboration and advancing sustainable development in China.

Name dc:type.qualificationname

dba

Level dc:type.qualificationlevel

doctoral

Grantor dc:publisher.institution

University of Wales Trinity Saint David

Year dc:date.issued

2025

Author dc:creator

• Wu, Xin

• HB Damcaniaeth Economaidd
• HD Diwydiannau. Defnydd tir. Llafur

Dc Identifier Grantnumber

UWTSD

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:repository.uwtsd.ac.uk:4104