ZHANG Yingxin;ZHOU Jian;

• 1:School of Public Administration and Policy
• 2: Renmin University of China
• 3:School of Interdisciplinary Studies
• 4: Renmin University of China

Abstract：

Policy diffusion, a classic theme in the policy sciences, has traditionally focused on the binary outcomes of policy adoption. This perspective often simplifies policy transfer into simple replication, thereby overlooking the diverse manifestations of policy reinvention. The complexity inherent in the reinvention process suggests that existing diffusion theories are insufficient to fully explain its formation. While previous research has offered valuable insights from both internal and external perspectives, it has lacked a highly integrated theoretical framework and has not clarified the dominant factors and complex relationships that shape policy reinvention, leading to a fragmented and ambiguous understanding of the process.To address this gap, this paper draws on advances in policy processes and organizational theories to develop an “Environment-Organization-Network-Leadership”(EONL) theoretical framework. This framework integrates four key concepts—the regional environment, organizational resources, intergovernmental networks, and leadership characteristics—to investigate the formation of policy reinvention. We conduct an empirical analysis using the case of municipal-level government data governance organizations, a significant managerial innovation in digital government policy. A mixed-method approach combining the Doc2Vec model and fuzzy-set Qualitative Comparative Analysis(fsQCA) is employed.The study yields several key findings:(1) No single condition is necessary to achieve high-level policy reinvention.(2) Multiple conjunctural causations exist. We identify five distinct configurational paths leading to high-level policy reinvention: internal coordination, environmental support, internal-external linkages, external coordination, and comprehensive evolution. The fundamental difference among these paths lies in the dominant role of either the external regional environment or the internal promotion incentives.(3) The relationships between these conditions are complex; Regional Environment and Leadership Characteristics are more critical than Intergovernmental Networks and Organizational Resources. Furthermore, substitutive relationships exist between the Regional Environment and the Organizational Resources as well as between Intergovernmental Networks and Leadership Characteristics.This study makes several contributions. Theoretically, it constructs an EONL framework, which provides a holistic understanding of the process of formation of policy reinvention by delineating the synergistic effects of multiple internal and external drivers. Methodologically, it applies fsQCA to reveal the causal configurations and complex relationships, enabling an analysis of multiple conjunctural causations. Empirically, it examines the horizontal reinvention of policy within the context of China's urban data governance agencies, addressing the limitations in domestic research that have predominantly focused on the vertical dimension.In conclusion, this research not only contributes to the growth of knowledge about policy diffusion by refining the theoretical framework for policy reinvention but it also identifies the crucial combinations of conditions necessary for the high-level success of policy reinvention. It offers valuable empirical lessons for local governments that are seeking to promote effective policy localization and optimization.

Key Words： policy reinvention;regional environment;organizational resources;intergovernmental networks;leadership characteristics;government data governance organizations

Abstract:

Keywords:

Foundation: 国家自然科学基金管理科学部专项项目“公共数据开放利用与授权运营理论与制度设计”(项目批准号:72342010)的资助

Authors: ZHANG Yingxin;ZHOU Jian;

References：

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• (1)2015年的沈阳市、厦门市、黄石市、广州市、成都市、保山市这6个城市不计入测度案例。 (2)经统计,截至2023年,组建政府数据治理机构的地级及以上城市有259个,但61个城市无法查到相关职责文本,这主要集中于组建方式为原有部门挂牌的城市。 (3)主要为哈尔滨工业大学停用词表、百度停用词表、四川大学机器智能实验室停用词库、中文停用词表(中国人民大学)。 (4)余弦相似度的计算基于两个向量之间的夹角,它测量这两个向量在方向上的相似程度,本文中取值范围为[0,1],表示两个向量方向相同,数值越大则相似度越大。 (5)本文以各城市政府官网为主要信息来源,使用“学习考察”与“考察学习”的关键词进行检索,经文本爬取与信息抽取后统计频数。 (6)虽然本文共搜集到了198个城市政府数据治理机构的职责文本,但2015年的6个城市是发明者,作为政策再生产比较的基准,其无法进行变量测度。而北京市、天津市、上海市、重庆市这4个直辖市则由于行政级别差异无法测量邻近竞争。因此,这10个城市不参与组态分析,实际分析样本量为188个。 (7)前者基于设置的关键定性锚点(完全隶属、完全不隶属以及交叉点)进行结构式校准,而后者则基于理论知识、案例经验与数据分布对隶属锚点进行重新定义。 (8)竞争压力与学习动力的变量构建方式使其不可避免地呈现出相对较高的“0”值,呈现出非典型的分布,这反映了多数市级政府在这两个方面的缺失或不活跃。因此,本文通过观察前因条件在案例中的分布,选择能够最大程度区分案例的数值作为完全不隶属与完全隶属的分界点。 (9)限于篇幅留存备索。 (10)由于组织与政策过程理论在多年的发展历程中已经积累了诸多的研究成果,这些研究成果可以为我们所选择的特定前因条件影响结果的方向提供间接甚至直接的支持,具体内容可以参考理论框架。此外,本文也尝试了保守的“数据驱动”策略,即假设单个前因条件出现与否均可能有助于高水平政策再生产的形成,结果表明虽然一致性与覆盖率有略微提升,但是以条件组态的简洁性损失为代价,这并不利于理论的发展。