Social Capital, Political Efficacy and Chinese Residents’ Willingness to Participate in Food Safety Governance

Nianyu Du, Chuanmei Zhang, Jin Qin, Liangqiang Jiang, Zongshuo Yin and Mo Chen ()
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Nianyu Du: College of Economics, Qufu Normal University, Rizhao 276827, China
Chuanmei Zhang: College of Economics, Qufu Normal University, Rizhao 276827, China
Jin Qin: College of Economics, Qufu Normal University, Rizhao 276827, China
Liangqiang Jiang: College of Economics, Qufu Normal University, Rizhao 276827, China
Zongshuo Yin: College of Economics, Qufu Normal University, Rizhao 276827, China
Mo Chen: College of Economics, Qufu Normal University, Rizhao 276827, China

IJERPH, 2022, vol. 19, issue 20, 1-17

Abstract: Residents play an important role as one of the main actors in food safety governance. To build a pattern of food safety risk co-governance, the positive and effective participation of residents is vital. This study first establishes a comprehensive analysis framework combining social capital theory and political efficacy theory. Data from a survey of 714 residents in Shandong Province, China, were analysed through structural equation modelling and fuzzy-set qualitative comparative analysis (fsQCA) to examine the causal relationship between residents’ willingness to participate and its driving factors. The results indicated that: (1) reciprocity norm, institutional trust and social engagement have significant positive effects on willingness to participate; (2) political efficacy has a partial mediating effect in the relationship between social capital and willingness to participate; (3) fsQCA findings have four solutions to achieving residents’ strong willingness to participate; reciprocity norm, institutional trust and political efficacy are the core elements that affected residents’ high willingness to participate, whereas social engagement and sociodemographic variables are the non-core variables. Therefore, we put forward suggestions for improving residents’ willingness to participate in food safety governance, including improving the appeal expression and feedback mechanism, cultivating residents’ social capital and paying attention to the superposition effect of social capital and political efficacy.

Keywords: food safety governance; social capital; political efficacy; residents’ willingness to participate (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I I1 I3 Q Q5 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2022
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