Enterprise ownership, enterprise organisation, and worker attitudes in Chinese rural industry: some new evidence

China's Township and Village Enterprises (TVEs) have performed remarkably w ell during the post-1979 period. However, agreement on their organisational and behavioural characteristics and the reasons for their success remains elusive. For some, TVEs are simply private enterprises in disguise and beha viourally equivalent; for others, TVEs represent a unique form of enterpris e organisation based on collective ownership, the success of which poses a serious challenge to the conventional prescriptions favouring privatisation . This paper reports findings from a small survey of private and collective rural enterprises in Heilongjiang, north-east China. We find strong eviden ce that differences in ownership are reflected in different forms of organi sational behaviour, residual payment structures, and in different worker at titudes and degrees of commitment to the enterprise.