Storyteller and Storytelling: How Policy Narratives Influence Citizens' Willingness to Coproduce

ABSTRACT

Coproduction, in which governments and citizens jointly invest resources and coordinate actions, is crucial for improving efficiency and creating public value. Mobilizing citizen participation remains a key focus for both researchers and practitioners. This study employed survey experiments to apply the policy narrative framework to the analysis of citizen involvement in coproduction. By constructing two distinct scenarios in China, it comparatively analyzed the effects and underlying mechanisms of different narrative elements on civic engagement. The results showed that a “future‐pessimistic” narrative plot had a consistently positive effect on coproduction willingness across both contexts. However, a complex interaction effect among narrative elements emerged only in the crisis context, revealing that certain combinations could suppress coproduction intentions. Mediation analysis further showed that risk perception fully mediated the relationship between narrative plot and coproduction willingness. This study offers a novel perspective and empirical evidence from a non‐Western context on the determinants of citizen‐led coproduction. Moreover, it provides practical insights for optimizing government mobilization strategies and designing effective narrative communication mechanisms.