Two decades of public service motivation research in China: a systematic review and research agenda

As public service motivation (PSM) scholarship expands beyond Western settings, a systematic understanding of how this construct has been studied within specific non-Western contexts remains underdeveloped. This systematic review provides the first dedicated longitudinal mapping of English-language PSM research in China, synthesizing two decades (2006–2025) of scholarship across 96 peer-reviewed publications. Our analysis documents China’s structural landscape of PSM research, including publication trajectories, sample profiles, methodological choices, measurement practices, antecedent clusters, and outcome patterns. Distinctive empirical patterns emerge, such as the dominance of leadership as the central antecedent, PSM’s robust buffering function against burnout and defensive behaviours, and the predominance of Western measurement instruments applied without cross-cultural validation in 51.0% of studies. These patterns are consistent with China’s Confucian relational governance traditions and party-state institutional context. We propose a research agenda that positions Chinese scholarship to extend PSM theory through relational conceptualizations, multilevel designs, and subnational comparative research, contributing distinctive theoretical perspectives rather than merely replicating Western frameworks in Eastern settings.