Can the use of government Apps shape citizen compliance? The mediating role of different perceptions of government

Abstract

Although government applications (Apps) have developed rapidly in recent years, few studies have paid attention to the consequences of government App use on citizen compliance. In response to this gap, this study divides citizens' government App use into informational use, service use and participatory use, and explores the impact of such use on citizen compliance, and the mediating role of trust in government, government transparency and government reputation on that relationship, by conducting a study of citizens in Guangzhou, Wuhan and Chengdu. The findings confirm that the service use and participatory use of government Apps positively predict trust in government and government reputation to varying degrees, while any one type of government App use cannot directly influence citizen compliance. This study also reveals the mediating mechanism of different perceptions of government on different types of government App use and citizen compliance, confirms the single mediation pathway to be the most effective pathway, and trust in government to be the most important mediator in the mediating process. Our findings further demonstrate that deep m-government usage behaviors under the condition of more sophisticated digital services and higher levels of government-citizen interactions can not only play a more effective role in promoting trust in government and government reputation, but also exert a potential impact on citizen compliance.