Download pdf
The impact of government response strategies on public satisfaction in Shanghai online petition system
- 1 School of Economics and Management, Tongji University, Shanghai, China
* Author to whom correspondence should be addressed.
Abstract
In the realm of government response discourse, the employed response strategy not only mirrors the government's service philosophy and professional level, but also holds profound significance for improving public satisfaction. To explore the impact of response strategies on public satisfaction, a total of over 43,000 data records were screened from Shanghai Online Petition System. We use the factor analysis method to measure three types of government response strategies, namely Actional, informational, and responsive strategies respectively. The research finds that the use of response strategies by the government during the response process can significantly enhance public satisfaction. This will help the government clarify the direction for improving response strategies, and also provide guidance for the positive government-citizen interaction.
Keywords
government response strategy, public satisfaction, online petition, government-citizen interaction
[1]. Hagemann, S., Hobolt, S. B., & Wratil, C. (2017). Government responsiveness in the European Union: Evidence from Council voting. Comparative Political Studies, 50(6), 850-876.
[2]. Su, Z., & Meng, T. (2016). Selective responsiveness: Online public demands and government responsiveness in authoritarian China. Social Science Research, 59, 52-67.
[3]. Zhong, Z. (2021). Internet public opinion evolution in the COVID-19 event and coping strategies. Disaster Medicine and Public Health Preparedness, 15(6), E27-E33.
[4]. Zhang, Y., Deng, W., & Gong, Y. (2022). The influence mechanism of governmental response strategy on public satisfaction with online complaint handling. Journal of Intelligence, 41(05), 124-132.
[5]. Feng, X., Zhang, Y., & Wang, J. (2023). Government response expression and public satisfaction on online petition platform: An empirical study based on automatic text analysis. Journal of Intelligent Society, 2(01), 40-68.
[6]. Eom, S. J., Hwang, H., & Kim, J. H. (2018). Can social media increase government responsiveness? A case study of Seoul, Korea. Government Information Quarterly, 35(1), 109-122.
[7]. Wang, L., & Yi, Y. (2022). How does government responsiveness alleviate negative public opinion during Covid-19? —Evidence from "Message Board for Leaders" in People.cn. Journal of Public Management, 19(04), 65-78+169.
[8]. Wei, Z., & Tang, X. (2024). Research on the effectiveness of online administrative inquiry based on explainable methods — Taking the “Please Speak Up” Online Administrative Inquiry Platform as an example. Journal of Systems Science and Mathematical Sciences, 44(05), 1478-1500.
[9]. Nie, L., & Wang, H. C. (2023). Government responsiveness and citizen satisfaction: Evidence from environmental governance. Governance: An International Journal of Policy Administration and Institutions, 36(4), 1125-1146.
[10]. Gao, X., & Lian, J. (2024). The impact of government response discourse patterns on citizen satisfaction in the context of digital governance: Based on emotional and rational perspectives. E-Government, (12), 65-78.
[11]. Jia, K. (2025). Public value preference and public satisfaction of government responses in network politics. Information Research, (02), 94-101.
[12]. Gauld, R., Flett, J., McComb, S., et al. (2016). How responsive are government agencies when contacted by email? Findings from a longitudinal study in Australia and New Zealand. Government Information Quarterly, 33(2), 283-290.
[13]. Li, C., & Li, H. (2017). The construction of citizen network inquiry and government response mechanism. E-Government, (01), 69-76.
[14]. Zhang, Y. (2023). Research on the influencing factors of citizens' satisfaction with government response on the internet political platform. [Doctoral dissertation] University of Electronic Science and Technology of China.
[15]. Ling, S., Liu, Y., & Liu, X. (2024). Effect of government information open’s impact on public participation and its mechanism test: Take the local government microblog in China as an example. Information Technology and Management Application, 3(01), 78-90.
[16]. Feng, Z., & Sun, Z. (2009). On the realization of citizen's right to know—From the angle of public participation. Journal of Gansu Administration Institute, (03), 123-129.
[17]. Zhang, T. (2022). Whose voice matters? Conformists, non-conformists, and responsiveness in China. [Doctoral dissertation] Stanford University.
Cite this article
Shi,Y. (2025). The impact of government response strategies on public satisfaction in Shanghai online petition system. Journal of Applied Economics and Policy Studies,18(3),76-84.
Data availability
The datasets used and/or analyzed during the current study will be available from the authors upon reasonable request.
Disclaimer/Publisher's Note
The statements, opinions and data contained in all publications are solely those of the individual author(s) and contributor(s) and not of EWA Publishing and/or the editor(s). EWA Publishing and/or the editor(s) disclaim responsibility for any injury to people or property resulting from any ideas, methods, instructions or products referred to in the content.
About volume
Journal：Journal of Applied Economics and Policy Studies
© 2024 by the author(s). Licensee EWA Publishing, Oxford, UK. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and
conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license. Authors who
publish this series agree to the following terms:
1. Authors retain copyright and grant the series right of first publication with the work simultaneously licensed under a Creative Commons
Attribution License that allows others to share the work with an acknowledgment of the work's authorship and initial publication in this
series.
2. Authors are able to enter into separate, additional contractual arrangements for the non-exclusive distribution of the series's published
version of the work (e.g., post it to an institutional repository or publish it in a book), with an acknowledgment of its initial
publication in this series.
3. Authors are permitted and encouraged to post their work online (e.g., in institutional repositories or on their website) prior to and
during the submission process, as it can lead to productive exchanges, as well as earlier and greater citation of published work (See
Open access policy for details).