Review of Local Major Construction Project Management Policy in China’s Urbanization

The divergent results of urbanization at various regions of China can be partially attributable to varied levels of local policy development regarding local major construction projects (MCPs). Nevertheless, local MCP policy development that helps achieve local urbanization performance and economic sustainability has been underestimated in prior studies. To fill this gap, this paper makes a longitudinal review of historical changes in local MCP policies at the provincial level in a perspective of institutional logics. Based on a preliminary analysis of 544 policy documents involving 31 provinces, municipal cities and autonomous regions promulgated between 1990 and 2019, four leading logics, namely, imitative, responsive, autonomy and innovative, are uncovered in the establishing local MCP policy along its three change stages of infancy, development, and transformation. The results not only shed more theoretic insights into the rationality of local MCP policy development in China, but also provide useful reference to governmental officials and practitioners involved for further development in the future.