Weibo to the Rescue? A study of social media use in citizen–government relations in China

Abstract

Purpose In this study, the authors explain citizens’ adoption of social media in citizen–government relations in China, a country that blends an authoritarian governance regime with limited tolerance of and responsiveness to online citizen participation. Design/methodology/approach Original survey data were gathered using a vignette survey among 307 respondents living in the People’s Republic of China. Multivariate analysis of the data was used to test four hypotheses and identify antecedents of Chinese citizens’ social media adoption for “thin” participation purposes. Findings Citizens’ perceived impact of “thin” participation, citizens’ skills and capabilities and citizens’ trust in institutions are significantly associated with citizens’ social media adoption. Social media anxiety was found not to be associated with Chinese citizens’ social media adoption. Research limitations/implications This study demonstrates how vignettes can be used to study adoption of technological and institutional innovations in an authoritarian governance regime and how in this context existing adoption theories can be extended with notions of institutional trust to adequately explain citizens’ adoption of technological and institutional innovations in citizen–government relations. Social implications Although some argue that social media activity could potentially mitigate democratic deficits caused by the state, in the case of China, the intertwinement of state and social media platform renders this argument unsustainable. Originality/value This study is one of the few systematic survey studies focusing on Chinese citizens’ adoption of social media in citizen–government relations.

Validation of an Integrated IS Success Model in the Study of E-Government

“…Furthermore, multiple regression analysis shows that the functions of E-government and social media are strongly linked to people's willingness to engage in protective behaviour [28]. As a result, E-government services have become increasingly important as a method of making services and information more accessible, accurate, and of high quality for inhabitants.…”

Institutional Trust and Social Media Use in Citizen-State Relations: Results from an international cross country vignette study

“…We control for two types of variables: demographic variables and known individual-level adoption and diffusion variables (Table 1). Demographic variables are included based on previous e-government adoption studies [Venkatesh, et al 2011, Venkatesh, et al 2003], individual-level adoption and diffusion variables are included based on related studies of social media adoption in citizen-state relations in specific national settings [Homburg, et al 2021a, Homburg, et al 2021b, Homburg, et al 2021.…”

“…In our study, we presented respondents with a vignette in which a neutral and general public issue was presented to respondents [Alexander, et al 1978]: protagonist Trudy is confronted with a pothole in a public road [Agarwal, et al 2019, Musaev, et al 2018, Pak, et al 2017, Seki. 2016] and uses social media to speak up about the pothole under his or her own name (that is, he or she does not react anonymously; see Appendix A for the vignette) [Homburg, et al 2021a, Homburg, et al 2021b, Homburg, et al 2021]. The items measuring the respondent's prospective behavior (''I would do the same as Trudy did", ''I would have also posted a message on the agency's social media page" and ''I would have done the same as Trudy did when confronted with the same situation") were used as a proxy for respondents' actual social media adoption behavior, being the dependent variable in this study.…”

“…Uses of social media for participation and citizen engagement have been reported in Western parliamentary liberal democracies [Landemore. 2015, Homburg, et al 2021a as well as in flawed democracies [Homburg, et al 2021b] and autocratic regimes [Homburg, et al 2020, Qin, et al 2017, Schlaeger, et al 2014, Homburg, et al 2021.…”

“…Despite a growing conceptual and empirical body of knowledge on adoption of social media in citizen-state relations and on digital participation and citizen engagement, there are at least three gaps in the literature. The first one is that the majority of current literatures focus on why government agencies adopt social media for interaction with citizens [Bonsón, et al 2019, Faber, et al 2020], and, with few exceptions [Homburg, et al 2021a, Homburg, et al 2021b, Homburg, et al 2021, Lu, et al 2016, researchers are yet to empirically study why citizens adopt social media to publicly voice concerns on governments' social media accounts [Medaglia, et al 2017]. The second one is that many if not most studies focus on specific national contexts (be it Spain, Portugal, Germany, or Italy [Bonsón, et al 2019, Agostino.…”