Open AccessCIVIC ENGAGEMENT AT THE CROSSROADS OF ONLINE AND OFFLINE SPACES: A PLS-SEM ASSESSMENT
Author(s) -
Adriana Zaiţ,
Andreia Gabriela Andrei
Publication year - 2019
Publication title -
scientific annals of economics and business
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.204
H-Index - 6
eISSN - 2501-3165
pISSN - 2501-1960
DOI - 10.47743/saeb-2019-0045
Subject(s) - online and offline , civic engagement , scale (ratio) , online participation , public engagement , sociology , psychology , public relations , social psychology , political science , computer science , the internet , politics , world wide web , law , geography , cartography
This study addresses citizen implication in societal issues, and analysis it at the crossroads of online and offline spaces. It draws on previous literature to advance a research model which differentiates between online and offline forms of civic engagement, and tests their relationships with people's attitudes and behaviors. Results show that both attitudes and behaviors are influenced by offline and online engagement, pointing out the driving role of the online side in forming civic attitudes, and the powerful direct effect exerted by the offline side on civic behavior. The research findings explain attitudinal and behavioral outcomes of online and offline civic engagement. Indicating that people become more involved in civic issues due to the digital evolution, the study extends prior literature and proposes an inclusive framework for understanding online and offline civic engagement, from a theoretical, instrumental, and empirical point of view. Additionally, the paper offers an up-dated scale for measuring the online civic engagement, by adding a 6th item (crowdfunding) into existent scale.