Factors influencing people’s desire for participation in local development activities in the Phuket City Municipality

Abstract

This quantitative research study is aimed to investigate the influence of potential factors on people’s desire for participation in local development activities in the Phuket City Municipality, located in Phuket, Thailand. A structured questionnaire is employed to collect data from a sample of 420 respondents. Results reveal the followings: (1) Descriptive statistical analysis indicates the level of people’s desire to participate in local development activities at a moderate level, and (2) The multiple linear regression model yields the predictive power of key variables along with control variables (age, education) in explaining people’s participation desire. The model accounts for 25% of the variance explained at the significance level .001. Merely three key antecedents significantly and positively predict people’s desire for participation in local development activities at the significance level .001. Those three independent variables include exposure to the municipality’s news and information (ß=0.38), past participation experience in the municipality (ß=0.19), and perceived severity of city problems in the district (ß=0.17). Since exposure to the municipality’s news and information is the most influential predictor, a strong recommendation for local government organizations, particularly at the municipality levels, is to increase the efficiency of communication process and mechanisms. The goal is to leverage and sustain people’s desire to actively participate in local development activities.