学界仅仅从资源依赖理论的角度理解和分析行业协会,过分强调了行业协会对政府和会员企业的依赖,其结果不可避免地忽视了行业协会的策略性行动和战略性选择的主动性。与此同时,政府与学界通行的对行业协会的职能定位缺乏客观可信的依据,割裂了行业协会组织类型和特征与职能之间的联系以及行业协会的职能与组织生存发展之间的联系,因此,罔顾行业协会受不同组织法则影响的不同程度将行业协会定位为政府与企业之间的“桥梁和纽带”。本文通过对广东省电力行业协会成长的观察发现,行业协会实际面临的现实挑战决定了其组织运行的逻辑,而组织运行的逻辑影响了行业协会的职能定位;源自实践而非预先构想的职能使行业协会走上独特的成长之路。广东省电力行业协会的成长不能用资源依赖理论来解释,它实现的职能更不是“桥梁和纽带”的社会意象所能涵盖。

The academic circles only interpret and analyze the business associations from the perspective of resource dependence theory, and overemphasize the business associations' dependence on the government and VIP enterprises. As a result, they inevitably neglect the initiative of strategic actions and choices of business associations. In the meantime, the relationship between the organization type, characteristics and functions of business associations on one side, the relationship between the functions of business associations and the survival and development of organizations on the other side, are separated. Therefore, the business associations are positioned as “bridges and bonds” between the government and enterprises regardless of the influence of different organizational imperatives of business associations. The observation of the growth of Guangdong Province Electricity Trade Association shows that the practical challenges faced by the associations determine the logic of their organization operations, and this logic affects the function orientation of the business associations; the function originating from practice rather than from pre-conception makes the business associations embark on a unique growth path. The growth of Guangdong Province Electricity Trade Association cannot be explained by the resource-dependence theory, nor can the achieved functions be covered by the social imagery of “bridges and bonds.”