Chinese Local Governments’ Behavioral Logic of Early-Warning Information Release Regarding Major Epidemic Outbreaks from the Organizational Analysis Perspective

Abstract

Based on the three-dimensional ‘organizational goal – organizational field – organizational incentive’ analysis framework, this paper attempts to conduct a comparative and diachronic analysis of the behavioral logic of Chinese local governments’ early-warning information release in major epidemic outbreaks. The results of the research show that the organizational goal, field and incentive are highly relevant to different strategic choices of whether local governments should, will and are willing to perform their governance function; additionally, different combinations of these elements trigger different local government behaviors. The organizational goal, field and incentive are the starting point, turning point, and end point of local governments’ behavioral logic, respectively, while the organizational field is a prerequisite for the organizational incentive to work. The organizational goal – organizational field – organizational incentive sequence reflects the sequence and interactive relationship of local governments’ behavioral logic.