Provincial Variations in Persistence across China: Index Development and Validation, Antecedents and Consequences

Subjects: Psychology >> Personality Psychology Subjects: Psychology >> Other Disciplines of Psychology submitted time 2023-03-31

Siwei Liu Xin Qin Haiyang Liu Chen Chen Limei Cao Xiujuan Zhang Yu Zhou

Abstract： Persistence, a personality to finish what one starts even when faced with obstacles, is one of the most important personalities for human beings to achieve their goals and objectives. Although most persistence studies have discovered the significant influence persistence has on the individual level, extant research on persistence is incomplete because whether persistence varies on the regional level is still unknown. However, recent research has indicated that personalities vary systematically across regions, and correlate significantly with macro indexes on the regional level. To address this literature gap, we argue that persistence varies across Chinese provinces, and develop and validate a province-level persistence index (PPI) to quantify such provincial variations. We also try to explore the province-level antecedents and consequences of provincial variations in persistence. We used the Chinese General Social Survey (CGSS) as our main data source for the development of province-level persistence index. CGSS measured participant’s persistence in 2008 and 2011. A high correlation between the province-level persistence index in 2008 and in 2011 allowed us to combine data from the two years. Therefore, the final sample included 11,330 participants (6,006 were female) from 29 provinces, municipalities and autonomous regions. In the CGSS, the persistence scale was consisted of three items. We first carried out a survey on Credamo.com to validate the persistence scale in CGSS, the sample of which included 286 participants (142 were female). We also used data from National Bureau of Statistics of China, CSMAR, etc. as the data sources of antecedent and outcome variables of persistence. We used STATA 15 to analyze the data. Results showed that the three-item measure of persistence in CGSS is reliable and valid and the persistence data from CGSS is suitable for aggregation. In general, persistence does vary systematically across Chinese provinces and the PPI we developed is significantly related to antecedent and outcome variables documented in the existing research. Specifically, the harshness of the natural environment (coldness, air pollution and agricultural disasters), cultural values of masculinity and collectivism are positively related to PPI. Moreover, PPI is positively related to political (local government officials’performance orientation and effort allocation distortion), economic (economic development quality, industrial structure upgrade and foreign investment introduction), social (education attainment, income, and well-being of the residents) and innovative and entrepreneurial (patent authorization, company incubation) outcomes, even after controlling for provincial GDP and year fixed effect. The current study demonstrates the systematic difference in persistence across Chinese provinces, extends individual level research on persistence to macro regional level, and develops province-level persistence indexes to provide an important tool for future research dealing with regional differences. We also systematically explored antecedents of provincial variations in persistence, and its influences on province-level macro metrics, offering a perspective of macro-micro intersection. Furthermore, we provide new references for government’s development policy making and companies’ branch management.

Peer Review Status:Awaiting Review

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