The Impact of Social Capital on Residents’ Supportive Attitude to Tourism Development: The Mediation Role of Perception of Justice

Lantao Zhu,Yingchuan Wang,Xi Li

doi:10.1177/21582440211047591

Lantao Zhu, Yingchuan Wang + Show 1 more

Open Access

https://doi.org/10.1177/21582440211047591

Copy DOI

Abstract

Based on social capital theory and fairness theory, the study proposes a residents’ supportive attitudes influencing model, with social capital as the antecedent variable, and the perception of justice as mediator. An empirical research was conducted on residents of three well-known island tourist destinations in Zhejiang Province, China, a total of 620 questionnaires were distributed in the three regions. The results of data analysis show that the perception of distributive justice and procedural justice is positively influenced by social capital; it has a positive impact on distributive fairness and residents’ support. Distributive justice has a positive impact on the supportive attitudes of residents. In addition, the mediation effect of distributive justice and procedural justice between social capital and the supportive attitude of residents has been supported. The theoretical contribution and practical value of this research have also been discussed.

Highlights

The community is the main field where social activities, social relationship networks, community value norms and social trust take place
The data shows that the respondents accounted for 52.64% of women and 47.36% of men in gender distribution; 25 to 44 and 45 to 64 years old accounted for 42.81% and 41.71% of the age distribution respectively; As to education, junior high school and below occupied 44.44% in a total of participants, junior colleges, and high schools accounted for 32.60%; In terms of income distribution, residents’ income was relatively high, with a group of 3,000 to 5,000 yuan/month accounted for 42.62%; In particular, most local residents participated in tourism industries were 72.50%; In the sample distribution, Zhujiajian accounted for 36.40%, Putuo Mountain accounted for 31%, and Taohua Island accounted for 32.60%
Confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) results show that the combined reliability of the social capital facet is (CR) 0.779

Summary

Introduction

The community is the main field where social activities, social relationship networks, community value norms and social trust take place. Social capital is a tool and mean to enhance the capacity of tourism communities. Tourism development has changed the community’s economic, social, and cultural structures. Changes in the community’s social structure affect the community social capital stock, which in turn affects residents’ attitudes and behaviors in the support of tourism development. While economic analysis of social capital cannot be carried out by individuals, technical tools such as social capital measurement (De Silva et al, 2005; Park et al, 2012, 2015) provide technical support for quantitative research and the application of social capital in the tourism industry. Studying the residents’ perception of justice and residents’ tourism supportive attitudes from the perspective of social capital can provide theoretical understanding for the development of community tourism

Objectives

Methods

Results

Conclusion