Directive vs. Commissive Illocutionary Acts?

Abstract

Governments sometimes release information implicitly, and citizens have to understand their illocutionary acts. The present study examines when and how illocutionary acts encourage citizens to disseminate government information. Based on the Speech Act Theory, Study 1 demonstrates that commissive illocutionary acts make citizens in a low-power distance culture more likely to disseminate information. In contrast, directive illocutionary acts make citizens in a high-power distance culture more likely to disseminate information. Study 2 confirms the underlying mechanism of perceived social exchange relationship by looking at the interaction effects between illocutionary acts and power distance perception in a single cultural setting. By crawling 10,000 government microblogs, Study 3 provides objective evidence for the interaction between illocutionary acts and power distance perception on citizens dissemination behavior of information. Finally, we discuss theoretical implications for government information dissemination, managerial implications, and future research directions.