ABSTRACT
The institutional transformation of China’s oil and petrochemical industry has
affected the position of individual production enterprises in many ways. This
chapter examines cases at Daqing and Zhenhai. Daqing, developed from the late
1950s, is the largest oil production region in China and Zhenhai, developed
from the early 1970s, is China’s second largest refinery in the late 1990s. Each
of the enterprises developed a strong sense of corporate identity and high
ambitions. Each of the two companies struggled for business autonomy during
the 1990s. As a result of the restructuring and flotation of PetroChina and
Sinopec, the position of each of the enterprises changed drastically from an
increasingly autonomous enterprise into a production unit within a large
corporate entity.
