User Engagement and the Sustainability of Public Digital Cultural Service Platforms: The Moderating Role of Perceived Government Support

Public digital cultural service (PDCS) platforms are central to promoting equitable access to cultural resources in the digital era; however, sustaining users’ continued engagement remains a key challenge for public-sector platforms. This study examines the psychological mechanisms underlying users’ continued use intention toward PDCS platforms within a public governance context. Building on the Technology Acceptance Model (TAM) and the Information Systems Success Model (ISSM), an integrated framework is developed that incorporates perceived government support as a moderating mechanism, thereby extending technology acceptance research to public digital cultural services. Empirical analysis, employing structural equation modeling, was conducted on survey data collected from 789 PDCS platform users in China. The results demonstrate that perceived usefulness and perceived ease of use both exert significant positive impacts on users’ continued use intention toward PDCS platforms. Perceived ease of use positively influences perceived usefulness, which further mediates the relationship between perceived ease of use and continued use intention. Additionally, information quality and system quality are confirmed to be positive antecedents of both perceived usefulness and perceived ease of use. More importantly, perceived government support significantly enhances the positive effects of both perceived usefulness and perceived ease of use on users’ continued use intention. By integrating individual technology acceptance mechanisms with institutional support factors, this study deepens understanding of user engagement in public digital cultural services and offers practical implications for enhancing platform sustainability through improvements in system design, information quality, and government support strategies.