Since the inception of Public Service Motivation (PSM) by Perry and Wise, substantial research has been conducted in this domain. However, there is a dearth of scholarly investigation into the impact of changing public service environments, specifically the perception of workplace risk, on public service motivation. Recent public health crises, such as the COVID-19 pandemic, have necessitated significant changes in frontline public employees’ work environments. As they frequently engage in epidemic prevention and control activities, which entail direct exposure to the virus, their motivation may fluctuate based on their perceived risks. Female employees, in particular, facing the dual pressures of work and family responsibilities, are more prone to being affected. Drawing upon the human behavioral motivation and Stress-Strain-Outcome framework, this study examines the influence mechanism of risk perception on public service motivation among 214 female employees who participated in epidemic control during the 2022 lockdown period in Shanghai. As the findings indicate, risk perception detrimentally affects their public service motivation both directly and indirectly through emotional exhaustion or anxiety-emotional exhaustion dual mediation, whereas anxiety does not mediate such a relationship. The study’s theoretical significance lies in its potential to broaden the scope of antecedent research on public service motivation and address the research gap about the mechanisms through which risk perception influences public service motivation during public health emergencies. Practically, these insights may assist public organizations in mitigating the adverse effects of risk perception, thereby enhancing their employees’ well-being and service effectiveness.

By examining the immigration policies of Yiwu, one of China’s international trade cities, this article observes a policy transition from how to control immigrants to how to integrate them. To explain this policy transition, this paper refers to neo-institutionalists’ theory, specifying the institutional setting, judicial organs, and social groups in China’s background. With the case study of Yiwu, it demonstrates that the decentralization from upper-level government to lower-level government on the one hand, and the horizontal reform within local government itself on the other, are the decisive factors in the changing immigration policies. Judicial organs, especially the court, are cooperating with government-organized non-governmental organizations (GONGOs) in their foreign-related litigation and mediation. At the community level, the “contracting out” of public services gives non-government organized social groups opportunities to participate in community management.

The rural minimum living security (Dibao) Program is regarded as an essential means to alleviating absolute poverty in rural areas. This study uses logistic regression to identify the influencing factors for the distribution of Dibao subsidies based on the CFPS 2020 database covering 28 provinces in China. Then, we categorize the sample into four types of households to further analyze the targeting performance of Dibao program with the method of multiple logit regression. The results reveal that the living standards of households, such as public facilities, drinking water, cooking fuel, housing value, and assets can impact the distribution and targeting performance of Dibao subsidies. Having educational burdens can significantly increase the probability of being covered by Dibao program for non-low-income households. Large family-size households that are involved in agricultural-related work and use electricity or other fuels for cooking are more likely to receive Dibao subsidies. When compared with the eastern region, households in the western region are more likely to gain Dibao subsidies. The results of propensity scores reveal that the contemporary mismatch of the rural minimum living security system has been overestimated in many research by simply treating non-low-income households that receive Dibao. However, the inclusionary targeting errors are still high (76%), which might indicate that there are still shortcomings in the targeting mechanism for the rural minimum subsistence allowance system. The research findings generate useful implications for policymakers to improve the accuracy in allocating rural Dibao subsidies.

By building structures on open government data and illuminating the area of China with a systematic assessment of 220 papers published in major journals of public administration from 2013 to 2023, this article aims to bridge the research gap of open government data. It presents an overview of the landscape of Chinese OGD research and exposes the current gaps with the paths of unresolved research in the future by thoroughly examining the overall progress, theoretical topics, theoretical underpinnings, and methodologies of these studies. Combining the findings of this analysis with the overall trends in Chinese OGD development and the current international research frontiers on OGD, the article suggests that Chinese scholars should critically examine international theories and construct a development framework tailored to the specific needs of Chinese OGD. It also proposes the coordinate mechanism and the synergistic effect at the micro-level need to be further explored and use more advanced quantitative research methodologies to confirm theoretical and qualitative empirical findings.

Contemporary public management research has focused heavily on the consequences of public service motivation (PSM). However, only a handful of studies have been conducted to develop context-indifferent measurement scales that reflect the nature of this central concept, which ranges along a continuum from controlled to autonomous motivation. This study proposes a new PSM model grounded in self-determination theory (SDT) and empirically validates two behavioral elements for the SDT-based PSM using data from Guangdong Province of China. Specifically, it is found that (1) the withdrawal behavior of public employees is positively influenced by their external PSM, negatively associated with identified and introjected PSM, and independent of intrinsic and integrated PSM; (2) there are positive relationships between introjected-, intrinsic-, identified-PSM, and taking-charge behavior; and (3) integrated and external PSM do not show significant outcome effects. Acknowledging that different motivational dimensions underlying the SDT-based PSM vary in their importance to the stimulation of withdrawal and taking-charge behaviors, the paper concludes with a future agenda for SDT- and PSM-related research that can be furthered in a manner that enriches theory or illuminates practice.

Despite the importance of social network analysis (SNA) in public administration, comprehensive reviews on this topic are rare. This study aims to fill this gap by focusing on the application of SNA in network research within public administration. This research analyzes 144 empirical papers from top public administration journals (January 1997–January 2022), utilizing bibliometric and content analyses. The study identifies social capital, the Advocacy Coalition Framework (ACF), the ecology of games framework, and resource dependence theory as the predominant theoretical foundations of SNA. The primary focus of these works is on collective action problems and public service delivery, with a trend towards the integration and comparison of theories. Through content analysis, we find a notable shift in SNA application from descriptive analysis to network inference, predominantly using Exponential Random Graph Models (ERGMs). It also reveals the growing significance of network visualization in SNA. The study concludes with potential future directions for SNA in public administration, highlighting its evolving role and significance.

Blockchains are peer-to-peer networks that record and track transactions in distributed ledgers. Cryptocurrencies were the first application of the technology. Since then, blockchains have been heralded as a novel institutional technology that can rival firms and governments in terms of certain coordination and production functions. Given initial applications in the public sector, the study of blockchains for public administration presents considerable opportunity to interested scholars for development and clarification. This special issue on “Blockchains in Public Administration” is a response to this gap. This thematic introduction to the special issue reviews the initial views of blockchains as an alternative to government. We then describe several areas where governments have begun to use blockchains. Our review of these applications emphasize opportunities for public administration scholars and practitioners to add to the ongoing conversation on the impact of blockchain on society.