Evidence behind community participation of ethnic tourism village farmers from the perspective of social network

Abstract The development of tourism has introduced profound transformations to the social networks of farmers in ethnic villages, consequently impacting their community participation. This study examines the influence mechanism of strong and weak social networks on community participation, with role identity serving as a mediating variable and government trust acting as a moderating variable. The research findings reveal that both strong and weak social networks exert significant positive effects on community participation. Role identity partially mediates the relationship between strong and weak social networks and community participation. Moreover, government trust significantly moderates the paths from weak social networks to role identity and from weak social networks to community participation. However, government trust does not significantly moderate the paths from strong social networks to role identity and from strong social networks to community participation. The implications of this study are substantial for enhancing the enthusiasm of farmers in ethnic villages for community participation and provide theoretical support for understanding the relationship between role identity and community participation.