Does executive turnover affect government transparency? Leadership changes and environmental information disclosure in Chinese cities

TY - JOUR

T1 - Does executive turnover affect government transparency? Leadership changes and environmental information disclosure in Chinese cities

AU - Huang, Ting

AU - Villadsen, Anders Ryom

AU - Lu, Chen

PY - 2024

Y1 - 2024

N2 - Research has underscored the role of executive turnover in organizational processes and outcomes. However, little research has linked turnover events to externally oriented outcomes such as government transparency and most studies are set in Western countries. Focusing on an authoritarian context, we theorize how new executives are likely to focus on issues that align with expectations from powerful stakeholders and turnover events provide windows of opportunities for organizational changes. Using panel data from 113 Chinese cities, this paper explores the impact of executive turnover on government transparency in environmental information. Results show that mayoral and party secretaries’ turnover positively affects government environmental transparency. This effect is contingent on the career stages of the successors and local pollution levels. Our results show divergence in moderating effects across mayoral turnover and party secretary turnover. Implications for research on executive turnover and government transparency in an authoritarian one-party political system are discussed.

AB - Research has underscored the role of executive turnover in organizational processes and outcomes. However, little research has linked turnover events to externally oriented outcomes such as government transparency and most studies are set in Western countries. Focusing on an authoritarian context, we theorize how new executives are likely to focus on issues that align with expectations from powerful stakeholders and turnover events provide windows of opportunities for organizational changes. Using panel data from 113 Chinese cities, this paper explores the impact of executive turnover on government transparency in environmental information. Results show that mayoral and party secretaries’ turnover positively affects government environmental transparency. This effect is contingent on the career stages of the successors and local pollution levels. Our results show divergence in moderating effects across mayoral turnover and party secretary turnover. Implications for research on executive turnover and government transparency in an authoritarian one-party political system are discussed.

UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85184159040&partnerID=8YFLogxK

U2 - 10.1080/10967494.2023.2284356

DO - 10.1080/10967494.2023.2284356

M3 - Journal article

SN - 1096-7494

VL - 27

SP - 241

EP - 258

JO - International Public Management Journal

JF - International Public Management Journal

IS - 2

ER -