Exploring the factors influencing online civic engagement in a smart city: The mediating roles of ICT self-efficacy and commitment to community.

This paper examines the effect of smart city service quality on online civic engagement. Smart cities are reconceptualized as smart social substances forming the basis of social interactions in which citizens themselves are involved in negotiating human–computer interactions in the processes of social learning, negotiating and adapting to ICT devices, and prompting behavior change to achieve the desired condition in the cities. In this study, responses from 548 citizens living in China in an online questionnaire are examined using a structural equation modeling technique for data analysis, and a theoretical model is proposed based on social learning theory. The results reveal that high-quality responsiveness and information content of a digital learning service have a significant positive effect on commitment to community and ICT self-efficacy. Additionally, we find that commitment to community and ICT self-efficacy have a significant positive effect on online civic engagement. Moreover, commitment to community mediates the effect of information content, responsiveness, and environment quality on online civic engagement. Our research findings suggest that, in their efforts to improve online civic engagement, smart city implementation practitioners can enhance citizens' individual commitment to community and foster ICT self-efficacy via high-quality ICT devices and digital learning services. • Smart city as a manifestation of actors, ICT systems, services and social learning. • Reconceptualization of smart city as smart social substance. • Interpersonally mediated service advances citizens' ICT self-efficacy. • Community commitment mediates the effect of service quality on citizen behavior. • Mechanisms underlying citizen judgment can enhance online civic engagement. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]