Raising public awareness of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) is a critical prerequisite for their implementation. However, little is known about attitude formation among the public toward SDGs at the national level. We explored this topic in China, a country that has emerged as a leading world economy with strong transformational imperatives to work toward sustainable development. Following Chaiken’s heuristic–systematic model and using data from an online survey with 4128 valid respondents, this study investigated the factors that affect public support for SDGs and explains how individuals form supportive attitudes. Our empirical evidence showed that in China, first, public support is mainly shaped by demographic attributes (gender, age, and educational attainment), value predispositions (e.g., altruistic values and anthropocentric worldviews), and the level of SDG-relevant knowledge. Second, an interaction effect exists between value predispositions and knowledge among the public concerning support for SDGs. Third, the Chinese public views the implementation of SDGs as a part of development policy rather than environmental policy. This study provides empirical findings on the factors that account for public attitudes toward SDGs, outlining some useful implications for designing policy tools that would bolster SDG action.

Pressing new (and old) challenges has put systems of governance and public administration under pressure around the globe. In this era, there is an ever greater need to globalize academic knowledge and learn from divergent systems. China has traditionally been held up as a suis generis exemplar of a particular mode of governance. An updated understanding of modern China and Chinese research on public administration stands to enrich the discipline by challenging old myths and assumptions – or by empirically demonstrating some enduring features. Given China’s size and geopolitical significance, it is also an important focus of study. This article outlines the key features of the Chinese system of government, governance and public administration. It maps the contours of the evolution of the study of public administration in China from the start of the twentieth century to a more mature and globally connected discipline in the present day. It also summarizes articles in this volume which shed new light on power, governance and public administration in modern China. They also provide new insights into governance and public administration theory. The volume shows that China has seen some localization and decentralization, alongside experiments with collaboration and networked-based policy making. However, the system of governance and public administration remains innately top-down and centralized with the center holding strong policy levers and control over society. As the pandemic revealed, this statist approach provided both governing opportunities and disadvantages.

Purpose: This research examines farmers’ cognitions to the policy and how such cognitions influence their intentions and behaviors of land transfer, with the implementation of the Three Rights Separation (TRS) policy.Design/methodology/approach: Using data collected from the Beijing area, this research tests the relationship between farmers’ policy cognition and their intention/behavior through the mediation of their psychological constructs. Both Causal step test and Bootstrap test are adopted.Findings: Farmers’ intention of land transfer is influenced by their cognition of the TRS policy. In this process, farmers’ psychological constructs play a mediating role between their policy cognition and their intentions of land transfer, thereby eventually influencing their behaviors. This research confirms that institutions are not exogenous and the policy is not wishful thinking from the government. Instead, any policies, even enacted by governmental authority, have to be internalized within target groups’ cognition to be implemented.Originality/value: Land transfer deserves close attention since it is the direct aim of the TRS reform. In this regard, this paper, based on an institutional perspective, aims to extend our understanding on the incentives of land transfer. This research proposes a revised model of planned behavior and argues that farmers’ intention of land transfer is influenced by their cognition of the TRS policy. On one hand, this study is the first to examine farmers’ cognition formed through the implementation of the TRS policy. On the other hand, it reveals the path of how policy can finally influence farmers’ intentions and behaviors through shaping their cognitions and changing subjective perceptions, which enriches our understanding of the mechanism of how policy has a concrete impact on society.

Performance evaluation has great potential to encourage government officials to improve their behavior (performance-oriented government behavior, POGB), but it also tends to lead to behaviors that are detrimental to government performance (non-performance-oriented government behavior, NPOGB). The latter behaviors are prevalent in many parts of the world, especially in areas with fiscal federalist characteristics such as China. This study analyzes POGB and NPOGB and employs game theory to develop a theoretical model to explain the causes of NPOGBs in China, exploring how competition among different jurisdictions leads to them. The findings show that (1) POGB is a condition of Pareto optimality in government behavior, but only represents a very small share of all government behaviors. The majority of behaviors can be categorized as NPOGBs. (2) The primary reason continuous and volatile NPOGBs persist is that, from the perspective of local officials operating under the constraints of information scarcity and risk aversion, they are rational choices, and officials have to imitate one another’s behaviors so as not to be defeated in the competition with others.

Innovation or imitation – a comparison of performance evaluation models in China

Summary: As community respondents to disease prevention and control, social workers faced extreme demands and challenges during the coronavirus disease 2019 pandemic. Based on data collected from 762 social workers in Beijing's urban area in 2022, this study conducts a moderated mediation model with Bootstrapping analysis to investigate how their effort-reward imbalance influences their work engagement and what role professional identity and perceived performance appraisal play in this relationship. Findings: The results show that when social workers perceive an effort-reward imbalance, their professional identities become weaker, and their work engagement decreases to avoid aggravating the imbalance. In addition, a top–down designed and controlling performance appraisal can enlarge this relationship. Applications: Social workers, as the frontline respondents to the pandemic where high efforts are unavoidable, should be granted more rewards to correct the effort-reward imbalance. Also, any management measures, including performance management or appraisal, shall be fairly designed as a useful source, helping social workers’ improvement and acknowledging their efforts, rather than merely imposing control.