The Diffusion of Government Microblogging

Governments across many countries are adopting new social media (e.g. twitter), and police departments are engaging in the bandwagon too. We empirically examine the spread of police microblogging in Chinese municipal police departments from the perspective of organizational innovation diffusion. The results show that government size, internet penetration rate, regional diffusion effects and upper-tier pressure are positively and significantly associated with the adoption and earliness of police microblogging, whereas fiscal revenue, economic development and openness, E-government and public safety have no significant effects. We also find that police microblogging diffusion is contingent on different variables at different phases.