An Empirical Study on the Incentive Mechanism for Public Active Involvement in Grass-Roots Social Governance Based on Stimulus-Organism-Response Theory

In the period of the normalization of COVID-19 prevention and control, Chinese grass-roots social governance, under the guidance of the dynamic zero-COVID policy, was unique, and the experience of actively mobilizing the public to be actively involved in grass-roots social governance, represented by epidemic prevention and control, has a profound internal logic. The Chinese government has long been committed to building a social governance community, and further empirical studies are needed to motivate the public to participate in grass-roots social governance in a sustainable manner. This study uses 428 members of the public who have experience in grass-roots social governance in 20 street offices in 11 cities, including Nanjing, Wuhan and Chengdu, as a valid sample to empirically test the incentive mechanism for the public’s active involvement in grass-roots social governance, from the perspective of Stimulus-Organism-Response Theory. The empirical results show that exogenously driven organizational institutional factors will eventually positively influence the incentive effect on the public’s active involvement in grass-roots social governance through the mediating effect of the individual’s endogenous drive. By adjusting organizational institutional factors to meet the public’s inner drive for acquisition, bond, comprehension, and defense, public motivation can be mobilized and the public can be motivated to be involved in grass-roots social governance in a sustainable manner. The results of the study reveal the incentive mechanism for the public’s active involvement in grass-roots social governance, analyze the internal logic of Chinese characteristics in motivating the public’s active involvement in grass-roots governance, and expand the scope of the application of Stimulus-Organism-Response Theory in studying the incentives for the public’s active involvement in grass-roots social governance, which is important for revealing the characteristic laws in a Chinese context with empirical research.