Explaining and Predicting Mobile Government Microblogging Services Participation Behaviors: A SEM-Neural Network Method

Abstract

Citizens' visits and contributions are critical to the success of mobile government microblogging services (GMSs). Drawing on stimulus-organism-response (SOR) framework and the uses and gratifications (U&G) theory, a research model was developed to investigate the impacts of perceived integration and atmosphere on citizens' gratifications and subsequent impacts on mobile GMS participation behaviors. A two-staged structural equation modeling (SEM)-neural network approach was employed to test the proposed model by using data collected from 702 mobile GMS citizens in China. The empirical results showed that atmosphere and perceived integration positively influence the citizens' perceptions of social value, information value, and hedonic value, which further positively influence the citizens' intention to acquire and share information. Moreover, the neural network analysis showed that the impact of the atmosphere on information value and hedonic value is stronger than that of perceived integration. The information value is found to be the strongest antecedents of the intention to acquire intention, while the social value is the most influential factor in predicting intention to share intention. The theoretical and managerial implications for mobile GMS research are also discussed.INDEX TERMS Mobile government microblogging, perceived value, neural network approach, perceived integration, participation behaviors.

Sustainability of Government Microblog in China: Exploring Social Factors on Mobile Government Microblog Continuance

“…The stimulus-organism-response (SOR) framework stems from the field of environmental psychology [11]. This framework proposes a logical assumption that various environmental cues play a role as stimuli (S) and affects individuals' cognitive or emotional responses (O), which leads to their behavioral responses (R) [2,11]. The SOR framework has been widely used to testify the association between environmental stimuli and behavioral responses by scholars [1][2][3].…”

“…This framework proposes a logical assumption that various environmental cues play a role as stimuli (S) and affects individuals' cognitive or emotional responses (O), which leads to their behavioral responses (R) [2,11]. The SOR framework has been widely used to testify the association between environmental stimuli and behavioral responses by scholars [1][2][3]. Due to the psychology content it includes, several scholars extended its original pattern and applied it in the study of usage behaviors in various research contexts [2,[12][13][14].…”

“…With the advance of mobile technology and prevalence of social media services, the applications of mobile social media in public administration have been increasingly strengthened [1,2]. As a typical representative of mobile social media, mobile government microblog (GM) can provide up-to-date information to citizens and interact with citizens anytime and anywhere, which have been increasingly embraced by various government offices and departments [3].…”

“…In accordance with the 43nd China Internet Development Statistics Report (CIDSR), the number of government microblog accounts on Sina Weibo had increased continuously these years and reached 139,270 by the end of September 2019 [4]. However, despite the government microblog spreads very fast and attracts a lot of microblog followers, the continuance use rate of many government microblogs is still very low [2]. How to lead citizens to continue use of mobile government microblog is a question that many microblog managers are asking.…”

“…In academia, although many previous studies have devoted to understanding mobile government social media adoption and use behaviors, most of them explain its usage from a technical-center point of view [2,5,6]. Theories such as the technology acceptance model [7] and its extension [8] have been adopted to explain citizens' mobile government microblog use behaviors.…”