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Abstract In the digital era, the institutional reform in emergency management is both crucial and urgent, driven not only by the extensive and profound application of digital technology, but also by the interplay and mutual construction between technology and institution. However, most existing studies predominantly follow a unidirectional attribution logic, only explaining “technological transformation” or “bureaucratic regulation”. The different explanatory approaches capture only a specific stage or a certain aspect of digital development, failing to provide a comprehensive picture of emergency management reform in the digital era. To unravel the true relationship between digital technology application and institutional reform of emergency management, it is necessary to revisit the broader theoretical issue of the relationship between technology and organizations. A review of relevant literature reveals three main theoretical perspectives: technological determinism, organizational constructionism and bidirectional mutual-construction theory. This paper adopts the mutual construction perspective, shifting the analytical focus to dynamic interaction processes, systematically examining the interaction impact of technology and institution within a unified framework. Building on classical theory frameworks, this paper attempts to construct a dynamic mutual construction framework of digital technology application and institutional reform of emergency management, proposing a series of research hypotheses about their interaction impact.
In practice, the two core explanatory variables—digital technology application and institutional reform of emergency management—are relatively abstract and difficult to measure directly. Therefore, this study employs big data research tools for text mining, establishing two text databases: “Digital Technology Application in Epidemic Control” and “Innovation of Emergency Institution in Epidemic Control”. By matching the text databases with standard statistical data, the study conducts indirect measurements, ultimately obtaining a panel dataset, spanning January 2020 to December 2022 and covering 31 provinces. Additionally, to address the endogeneity issue arising from mutual influence, we introduced a simultaneous equations model for empirical test. The results show that there is a significant mutual promoting effect between technology application and institutional reform. Specifically, the key pathway through which technology application drives institutional reform is by strengthening collaborative mechanisms, while institutional reform promotes technology application primarily through technology-inclusive institutional design. Moreover, the heterogeneity of regional technology environment and crisis impact has a moderating effect on the mutual promotion. Regions with superior technological environment exhibit better performance in the coordinated development of technology and institution, while the damage of a major crisis can be a key point in driving change, speeding up the process of interaction between technology and institution.
The findings preliminarily validate a continuous picture of emergency management reform in the digital era, potentially contributing to theory in two ways. First, this paper bridges the theoretical research on digital governance and emergency management, broadening the research perspective of governance reform in the digital era. By focusing on the practice of crisis response, researchers will have a greater possibility to observe the general patterns and characteristics of governance reform. Second, the new analytical framework integrates environmental features of interactive systems and refines the specific roles of institutional elements in organizations. Thus, the relevant theories of the interaction between technology and institution have been supplementary revised. The theoretical explanation of the bidirectional mutual-construction between technology application and institutional reform also deepens practical understanding, and can provide policy implications for the adjustment and optimization of emergency management systems in the digital era.
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Published: 18 February 2025
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