Institutional Pressures, Policy Attention, and e-Government Service Capability: Evidence from China’s Prefecture-Level Cities

Abstract Exploring the “institutional pressures – policy attention – innovation performance” link is essential for public managers to address the differentiated development between regions for e-government service capability (EGSC). This study examines the influence of institutional pressures on EGSC, and mediation roles of e-government attention between them by integrating attention-based view and neo-institutional theory. By analyzing a panel dataset from 333 prefectures in China, we identify EGSC, policy attention, and three types of institutional pressures, namely coercive, mimetic, and normative (media and public). Empirical evidence reveals that coercive, mimetic, public normative pressure had significant positive impacts on EGSC. Furthermore, e-government attention mediated the effects of coercive, mimetic, and public normative pressure on EGSC, respectively. The findings enrich our understanding of the crucial role of policy attention in explaining the e-government performance differentiation phenomenon accompanied by institutional pressures.