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Explora: Environment
and Resource The development of the river chief in Nantong and Huzhou

Policy transfer

Degree to which original Agents, organizations,
Environment is translated and institutions
of transfer

Direct copy Mixtures Assortments Inspirations Active decision
not to transfer
Soft Hard
mixtures mixtures
Figure 1. The transformative process of policy transfer

As shown in Figure 1, the transfer process can follow shape actors’ perceptions and motivations in the transfer
several trajectories: process, including pre-existing structures, policies, mental
(i) Direct copy: Tends to involve little to no transformation. maps, values socio-political moods, and the institutional
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(ii) Mixtures: Tend to look much like the original but “life spaces” agents of transfer inhabited. As a result,
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involve a greater or lesser degree of transformation transfer and learning tend to be conditioned by discursive
during the transfer and implementation processes. paradigms, ideational circuits, institutional frameworks,
(iii) Assortments: Tend to involve a wide network of agents and power structures surrounding the agents involved in
and institutions that make considerable transformations the movement and implementation of transferred ideas
of the original model (or models) during the transfer, and policies, regardless of the political system in which
development, and implementation processes. they operate.
(iv) Inspiration: Involve ideational transfer but little actual
policy movement, can involve a single entrepreneur or Due to these internal motivational and external
a wide number of network agents. structural factors, transferring policy, especially when a
(v) Non-transfer: Occurs when agents involved in the copy is taken by a jurisdiction operating under the same
transfer process actively learn and decide that they do authority, is not as straightforward as often presented in
not want to do what others have done, regardless of the transfer literature. Rather, successful transfer often
the translation process involved in the decision. involves adaptation and change, based on internal and
collective needs that influence how the agents involved
In China, the attraction of turning to others for perceive their roles and the role of the transferred policy.
information and ideas has increased over the past
20 years, as subnational governments have engaged in In other words, the motivations of the transfer agents and
a semi-encouraged competition to be seen by higher- where they fit into the power relations of the policymaking
level administrators and governing authorities as policy system shape the outcomes of the transfer. This is true
innovators and economic magnets for private sector regardless of whether the transfer results in a close copy of
investment and state-owned enterprises. 1 the original model or an assortment that combines many
different models (Figure 1). As a result, even when agents
While transfer tends to be linked to success within the are predisposed to copying a model, there is no guarantee
literature, we will demonstrate that despite the initial success that it will work as it did in the originating system. This is
of the Wuxi model as it entered new locations, it did not prove particularly true when agents are inclined to see similarity
to be as effective even when the transfer occurred between where it does not exist or, as in the case of Nantong, engage
municipalities facing similar issues were part of a single in copying to gain legitimacy (particularly where promotion
province and emerged as a virtual copy of the original model. 36 is based on higher-level government and agency) rather
Part of the reason for this (despite the hierarchical than a desire to improve the situation.
nature of authoritarian systems) relates to factors that Similarly, contextual factors shape motivations and
abilities, which can lead to unexpected outcomes that,
despite the transfer literature’s focus on success, offer
1 While not the focus of this article, the globalization of
information and spread of information technology have little guarantee of success. This study demonstrates that
made accessing information related to policy ideas and little contextual factors are often more important in shaping
more than a mouse click away, even if it’s poor, misleading, the outcomes of transfer than the policy that is ultimately
and false. developed in response to the transfer. 40

Volume 2 Issue 3 (2025) 3 doi: 10.36922/EER025110018