How Local Government Services Shape Sense of Belonging and Length of Residence

Abstract Depopulation is becoming a problem for local governments around the world as they struggle to maintain services with a weakening tax base. While the growth paradigm encourages a narrow focus on population growth, a community well-being lens urges local governments to broaden their focus to meeting the needs of its residents and creating a stronger sense of belonging. This paper explores how local government services are related to sense of belonging and length of residence. We draw from the expectancy-disconfirmation model that explains satisfaction with the distance between expectations and perceived performance, called “disconfirmation.” We extend this model by exploring two types of disconfirmation: objective and subjective. Using 2019–2020 national survey data of 18,085 residents in South Korea we test whether objective and subjective disconfirmation can be distinguished empirically and how they are related to sense of belonging and length of residence. Structural equation model results show that as subjective disconfirmation increases and becomes more positive (i.e. residents’ satisfaction with services is greater than their expectations), sense of belonging and length of residence increase as well. In contrast, objective disconfirmation did not show statistically significant relationships with sense of belonging or length of residence. The way local government services can affect sense of belonging and urge people to stay seems to be based on subjective, not objective, disconfirmation. Recommendations stemming from the growth paradigm that all communities should strive for growth may lead to disappointing outcomes.