Experimental research in the Asia-Pacific region: review and assessment of regional capacity

ABSTRACT

Scholars of public administration are increasingly using experimental research to develop more robust causal inferences and greater methodological capacity. Against this backdrop, we examine the extent to which experimental research has taken hold in the Asia-Pacific region and assess regional capacity. Our review of 30 articles published by scholars based in the Asia-Pacific region in the public administration section of the Web of Science’s Journal Citation Reports finds that the regional capacity for experimental research is concentrated in a small number of institutions and strongly supplemented through international collaboration. Topics studied reflect the advent of behavioural public administration. Although progress is being made in reporting experimental designs, much work is needed in the region to bring greater transparency to scholarship. We conclude by encouraging scholars to more robustly implement and report experimental research and by outlining future directions.

KEYWORDS:

• public administration
• experimental research
• Asia-Pacific
• review
• regional capacity

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

1. Bouwman and Grimmelikhuijsen’s (2016) review of experimental public administration studies between 1992 and 2014 identified 42 articles, of which three were authored by scholars in the Asia-Pacific region.

2. The SSCI database contains publications predominately in English. Driven by speculation that Asia-Pacific scholars could publish experimental research in domestic journals, we employed the same protocol to select and review publications in Chinese Public Administration (in Chinese), Journal of Public Management (in Chinese) and International Review of Public Administration (formerly known as Korean Review of Public Administration). We found six studies in total, which suggests the infrequent use of experimental research methodology in the region.

3. The Asia-Pacific region is the vast geographical area that contains Australia, Bangladesh, mainland China, Hong Kong, India, Indonesia, Japan, Malaysia, Nepal, New Zealand, Russia, Singapore, South Korea, Taiwan and Vietnam.

4. The following policy journals were included in the Public Administration field of the SSCI at the time of the study: Contemporary Economic Policy, Climate Policy, Canadian Public Policy, Journal of Accounting and Public Policy, Policy Sciences, Policy Studies, Policy Studies Journal and Journal of Policy Analysis and Management. We examined all articles with an experimental research design in these journals to identify whether they included public administration or management concepts.

Additional information

Funding

The work described in this paper was sponsored by the Public Services, Performance, and Citizen Satisfaction: Expanding Experimental Methods in China, No. 71974164, which was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (NSFC), and was supported by the Shenzhen Research Institute, City University of Hong Kong;National Natural Science Foundation of China [71974164].

Notes on contributors

Wenna Chen

Wenna Chen is a PhD candidate in the Department of Public Policy at City University of Hong Kong. She currently serves as a research assistant in the Laboratory for Public Management and Policy at City University of Hong Kong. Her research interests include public sector innovation, leadership turnover and mobility, policy diffusion, network governance and performance information.

Binzizi Dong

Binzizi Dong is a PhD candidate in the Department of Public Policy at City University of Hong Kong.

Chih-Wei Hsieh

Chih-Wei Hsieh is an associate professor in the Department of Public Policy at City University of Hong Kong. His research interests lie in human resource management and organisational behaviour, focusing on enhancing service encounters between public professionals and citizens.

Ning Liu

Ning Liu is an assistant professor in the Department of Public Policy at City University of Hong Kong. Her research focuses on government–business relations, regulation and compliance and public policy.

Richard M. Walker

Richard M. Walker is the Chan Hon Pun Professor in Behavioral and Policy Sciences, Chair Professor of Public Management in the Department of Public Policy and Dean of the College of Liberal Arts and Social Sciences at City University of Hong Kong. He is the Director of the Laboratory for Public Management and Policy and Co-Director of the Center for Public Affairs and Law. He is also an Affiliated Researcher of the Shenzhen Research Institute, City University of Hong Kong and a Fellow of the Academy of Social Sciences.

Yao Wang

Yao Wang is a PhD student in the Department of Public Policy at City University of Hong Kong.

Bo Wen

Bo Wen is an assistant professor in the Department of Public Policy at the City University of Hong Kong. His primary areas of study are public management, organisation theory and behaviour, institutional analysis, policy implementation, regulatory governance and Chinese politics.

Peiyi Wu

Peiyi Wu is a PhD candidate in the Department of Public Policy, City University of Hong Kong, and the Senior Research Associate at the Shenzhen Research Institute, City University of Hong Kong.

Jiasheng Zhang

Jiasheng Zhang obtained his Ph.D. from the Askew School of Public Administration and Policy, Florida State University. He currently works in the Laboratory for Public Management and Policy at City University of Hong Kong. He is interested in applying quantitative methods, such as experimental design and computational social science methods, to examine issues related to citizen-state interactions, performance information, and collaborative governance.