Mobile Government Service Promotion Strategies: Exploring Sustainable Development Pathways Based on Provincial Government Practices in China

Abstract

The level of mobile government services has become a crucial metric for modernizing a government’s governance capabilities, and it plays a significant role in promoting sustainable development. This study aims to explore the key factors influencing the level of mobile government services across 31 provinces in China, along with their combinatory pathways. Using the technology–organization–environment (TOE) framework and employing fuzzy-set qualitative comparative analysis (fsQCA), this study conducts an in-depth analysis of mobile government service levels across these provinces, focusing on the dimensions of technology, organization, and environment. The results identify three pathways that promote high levels of mobile government services: technology–organization, technology–environment, and internal–external linkage-driven pathways. These pathways offer viable strategies for achieving sustainable development in mobile government services. Additionally, this study identifies two pathways associated with lower service levels, technology deficiency, and organization–environment misalignment, highlighting key factors that hinder sustainable development. The findings suggest that organizational and environmental factors can complement each other based on technological conditions, internet penetration rates, and citizen participation levels. Based on these insights, this study recommends that provincial governments proactively explore sustainable development pathways, optimize the “technology–organization–environment” conditions to harness synergies, and work towards enhancing mobile government service levels, thereby reducing inter-provincial disparities and advancing sustainable development.