Do community benefit programs Really work? An importance-performance analysis of local assistance programs near NPPs in South Korea

Despite substantial budgets allocated to Local Assistance Programs (LAPs) near South Korean nuclear power plants (NPPs), concerns have been raised that these programs may not align with the actual needs of residents. This study evaluates the effectiveness of LAPs near South Korean NPPs by analyzing the alignment between program implementation and resident needs. To evaluate the effectiveness of LAPs, this study analyzed all 1,839 LAPs implemented by five NPP headquarters (Kori, Saeul, Wolsong, Hanbit, and Hanul) from 2019 to 2023. Using publicly disclosed data from each headquarters’ website, ten representative program types were derived through a text clustering analysis of project titles. Subsequently, we conducted a survey of 400 residents in the NPP-neighboring areas and performed a novel Importance-Performance Analysis (IPA), enhancing its robustness through a bootstrapping method. The analysis used actual program expenditures as the performance metric and residents’ perceived needs as importance metric. The IPA revealed a significant mismatch in that while welfare and scholarship programs were highly valued by residents, substantial budgets were allocated to cultural and economic programs for which residents expressed low importance. Notably, support for local festivals and programs for farmers and fishers were identified as ‘possible overkill,’ suggesting a misallocation of resources. Furthermore, despite significant regional variations in LAP expenditures, residents’ perceived needs remained remarkably consistent across all regions. Interpreted through expectation-disconfirmation theory, this gap between resource allocation and resident preferences represents a negative disconfirmation that risks eroding public trust. This study concludes that enhancing the effectiveness of LAPs requires a shift towards evidence-based program design that prioritizes residents’ stated preferences, thereby strengthening community trust and fostering public acceptance.