Reward exploitation or exploration? The effects of local government sustainability strategies and performance information on citizen evaluation

Wenhui Li, Heewon Lee, Yixin Liu, Tian Tang, Guimin Zheng

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

Abstract

Given the growing attention on citizen involvement in local sustainability, this study explores how citizens evaluate government sustainability performance stemming from exploitation (established policies) and exploration strategies (pioneering initiatives). Our survey experiment finds that positive sustainability performance resulting from exploitation achieves more favourable citizen evaluations compared to exploration. Negative sustainability performance does not moderate the associations between sustainability strategies and public assessments. Furthermore, Republicans, individuals with low climate beliefs, Hispanics, and low-income citizens prefer exploitation over exploration. As an early attempt to examine citizen preferences for organizational strategies, this study extends performance management research by linking organizational strategies with performance.

Original languageEnglish (US)
JournalPublic Management Review
DOIs
StateAccepted/In press - 2024

Keywords

  • citizen evaluation
  • local sustainability
  • performance management
  • Strategic management
  • survey experiment

ASJC Scopus subject areas

  • Public Administration

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