Performance feedback, blame avoidance, and data manipulation in the public sector: evidence from China’s official city air quality ranking
基于责任规避视角，研究了绩效反馈如何影响公共组织的数据操纵行为，并以中国城市空气质量排名为案例，发现负面绩效反馈增加数据操纵，正面反馈减少，且组织资源会弱化负面反馈的影响。
Drawing upon the blame avoidance perspective, this study develops a holistic and extensible theory on how different performance feedback affects public organizations’ data manipulation behaviours. The theory predicts that negative (positive) performance feedback increases (decreases) public organizations’ tendency to engage in data manipulation. Moreover, organizational resources negatively moderate the relationship between negative performance feedback and data manipulation. Taking China’s official city air quality ranking as the empirical case, our empirical analyses with the panel data approach and the regression discontinuity design find strong evidence supporting these predictions.