Conventional wisdom has it that globalization invites or forces countries to converge on a universally superior pattern of organization and economic behaviors. This dissertation argues against this view of efficiency/convergence theories and demonstrates that there is variation in how different states respond to similar external pressures. Globalization and economic crises are not homogeneous in their effects, nor do they force countries, industries, and firms to converge toward a homogeneous organizational pattern of "best practice" or "optimal efficiency." A key predictor of this is institutions, history, and values embedded in and upholding those institutions. Based on historical institutionalism, this study theoretically argues that there is continuity in institutions, emphasizing the constraints created by existing structures and institutions. This analysis is based on a number of considerations: (1) the interlocking nature of institutions and thus difficulty of transforming them; (2) the persistence of attitudes, values, and practices that sustain and put those institutions in place; and (3) the way in which institutions reinforce the values, attitudes, and practices that created them in the first place. Understanding the different mechanism of sustaining institutional persistence is the key to understanding why common international trends frequently have such different domestic consequences, disrupting previously stable patterns in some countries while washing over others seemingly without effect. As an example of a country in which neoliberal policies have been significantly limited, this study assesses South Korea (hereafter referred to as Korea), as a case study encompassing approximately three decades of state activism vis-à-vis corporations. The result found in this study is that there is no rapid disappearance of institutional pattern of state activism in Korea. This study examining four institutions: (1) state-led ideology; (2) centralized and personalized power of the president; (3) bureaucratic system as a function of policy implementation; and (4) the state-advised financial sector. This study demonstrates that whereas formal institutions collapse or are dismantled, informal institutions, such as social networks and operating procedures, persist to shape the behavior of economic actors. Institutional structure is so integrated that it cannot be easily divided into separate parts for the new regime in order to produce efficient solutions to the economic crisis. This study contributes to the new insight of state activism in terms of how formal and informal institutions are linked in providing a context for policy patterns. This study helps scholars understand the process in which the state often uses formal institutions to validate decisions made in the context of informal ones, and informal institutions to bypass constraints of formal ones.