Move toward citizens: third-party professionals' coping strategies in public legal e-service delivery in China

Third-party professionals worldwide are increasingly engaging in public service provision. However, they may not always maximize their expertise and provide citizens with quality services. This research developed a dual-client model to examine what shapes legal professionals’ coping strategies to move toward citizens in public legal e-service delivery. We argue that whether legal professionals move toward citizens is co-shaped by the purchasing government’s influence, service users’ e-communicative cues, and their own attributes. Using a novel dataset containing 2,228 e-counseling cases from China, we found that although law firms’ government connections may sway their employees (i.e. individual legal professionals) from moving toward citizens, such negative effects disappear among female or highly educated lawyers or when citizens explicitly recognize the service provider as a legal expert. Our findings emphasize the interdependence of multiple actors in shaping third-party professionals’ coping strategies in public contractual settings, conveying important implications for enhancing professionals’ engagement in public e-services. © 2025 Zhejiang university