The Determinants of the Effectiveness of Chinese Homeowner Associations in Solving Neighborhood Issues

Chinese homeowner associations (HOAs) are citizen-initiated, self governing neighborhood organizations that emerged very recently in urban China. HOAs take various legal, political, and social actions to deal with neighborhood issues. However, there are large discrepancies in the effectiveness of these actions. Using data collected from in-depth interviews with leaders of 91 registered HOAs in Beijing, this study investigates the contextual and organizational factors that explain this heterogeneity of outcome. The results show that the factors affecting HOAs' ability to solve the two most prominent types of neighborhood issue — issues involving developers, and issues involving property management companies — are quite different. Issues involving property management companies are more effectively solved by mobilizing organization resources and encouraging resident participation. Solving developer-related issues, however, requires broader legal and political support