The Chinese government is rushing to cauterize the political damage just months before the party orchestrates a once-in-a-decade power transfer to a new generation of leaders. Mr. Bo, the scion of one of modern China’s revolutionary founders, once aspired to be among those who effectively run the country by joining the nine-member Politburo Standing Committee.

Mr. Bo has also been scrubbed from boardrooms here, despite his success at luring multinational corporations to Chongqing and overseeing the country’s highest rate of growth. Gone are the portraits that graced office walls, say those who work for state-backed enterprises. In this era of instantaneously shifting loyalties, any perceived allegiance to Mr. Bo could prove disastrous. Dozens of officials have been detained as the central government moves to dismantle his support network.

At the headquarters of the Liangjiang New Area, billed as China’s third-largest development zone, visiting delegations were once greeted with a video of Mr. Bo championing the area’s industrial prowess. The screens are now dark.

Some local business executives hope Mr. Bo’s famous preference for state-owned enterprises over private corporations will fade with him. In rejecting the Chongqing Model, the municipality’s new leadership, under the party chief Zhang Dejiang, appears to be showing a greater interest in the private sector.

Wu Xu, the chairman of Chongqing Sincere Group, a property development company, heaped leaden praise on Mr. Zhang while carefully avoiding any mention of his predecessor. Chain smoking in his corner office, Mr. Wu lauded Mr. Zhang for holding a meeting of private-business owners soon after his arrival. “That never happened before,” he said. “There’s been a big change. We are more confident in this business environment.”

But the purge has also created headaches for entrepreneurs.

In interviews, some lamented the waste of time and money that was spent currying favor with Mr. Bo’s bureaucrats. One real estate executive said that his two most powerful contacts were detained after Mr. Bo’s ouster and that all his proposals were in limbo. He dreads the prospect of having to grease new palms but sees no other option. “If I don’t take the new officials out to expensive dinners and buy them gifts, I’m finished,” the executive said, speaking on the condition of anonymity for fear of government reprisals.

Mr. Bo took pride in his anticorruption bona fides, but businesses were often forced to pay monthly or annual bribes to local government agencies, business owners said. If they refused, officials would shut them down.