Cultural constraints in digital adaptation: state ownership, agents, and newspaper organisations in China

Zhao, Wei (2025) Cultural constraints in digital adaptation: state ownership, agents, and newspaper organisations in China. PhD thesis, University of Glasgow.

Abstract

This study examines the digital adaptation of China’s state-owned newspaper firms, with a particular focus on the cultural constraints shaping their organisational capabilities for digital growth. Drawing on theories from organisational studies, media management, and media innovation, it investigates ownership as a key structural factor influencing cultural dynamics, which in turn affects the innovation capabilities of Chinese newspaper firms.

Through a multi-case study of three Beijing-based national industry newspapers, this research identifies three common cultural phenomena: self-identification as state media, symbolic compliance in policy engagement, and the accepted norm of “co-creation” between journalists and advertisers. Despite their shared state ownership, each newspaper firm exhibits distinct organisational cultures shaped by agent owners—supervisory entities responsible for exercising ownership rights on behalf of the state. By embedding their own institutional priorities and interests into organisational practices, these agent owners refract the influence of state ownership, generating varied cultural dynamics across Chinese newspaper firms. Building on this, the study further explores the motivations behind Chinese newspaper firms’ innovative behaviours, identifying three primary drivers—self-drive, state compliance, and change aversion—that either facilitate or hinder digital adaptation. The interplay of these motives, with state ownership playing a significant role, reveals a misalignment of values, goals, and expectations among policymakers, agent owners, press management, and practitioners. These cultural constraints have been limiting the innovation capabilities of Chinese newspaper firms in their pursuit of digital transformation and genuine engagement with the state-led media convergence strategy.

This study challenges the conventional view of China’s state-owned media system by critically uncovering the underexplored yet pivotal role of agent owners. It further advances media innovation research by proposing a novel motivation-based framework to decode organisational cultures and behaviours within Chinese newspaper firms, drawing on valuable empirical data. The findings call for further academic and regulatory inquiry into the power boundaries of agent owners and their conflicts of interest with Chinese newspaper firms, offering insights to mitigate agency loss in China’s media governance and address the institutional constraints on media innovation.

• Item Type: Thesis (PhD)
• Qualification Level: Doctoral
• Subjects: J Political Science > JQ Political institutions Asia
• Colleges/Schools: College of Arts & Humanities > School of Culture and Creative Arts
• Supervisor's Name: Doyle, Professor Gillian and Boyle, Professor Raymond
• Date of Award: 2025
• Depositing User: Theses Team
• Unique ID: glathesis:2025-85070
• Copyright: Copyright of this thesis is held by the author.
• Date Deposited: 17 Apr 2025 10:09
• Last Modified: 17 Apr 2025 10:13
• Thesis DOI: 10.5525/gla.thesis.85070
• URI: https://theses.gla.ac.uk/id/eprint/85070