Risk Perception of Chinese Urban Residents: An Institutional Theory Perspective

This article provides an institutional theory perspective to investigate how institutional factors influence the risk perception of Chinese urban residents. The three dimensions of institutional affiliation, social network, and trust mechanisms are theorized into three institutional (coercive, normative, and mimetic) forces. Based on analysis of the data collected from eight cities in the “Social Network and Work Experience” (JSNET2014) project, the proposed hypotheses are all supported except that the hypothesis regarding the New Year greeting networks and risk perception is only supported when interpersonal and institutional trust mechanisms are not controlled in the model. Contributions and implications for research and policymaking are discussed, and limitations and future research opportunities are also illustrated.