Impact of Community Trust on Residents Perceptions of Green Governance Performance: Evidence from Chengdu

. Green is the underlying requirement for China’s high-quality development. The extent to which residents perceive the performance of green governance is related to the formation of a green governance community and the achievement of green value objectives. Based on 295 valid questionnaires and qualitative interview data in Chengdu, this paper employs a mixed-methods research to investigate the role of community trust on the resident perceptions of green governance performance from the perspective of individual di ﬀ erences. The ﬁndings demonstrate that community trust promotes social interaction and information ﬂow and signiﬁcantly positively a ﬀ ects the resident’s perception of green governance performance. Public perceptions of green governance performance can be e ﬀ ectively enhanced by actively cultivating general trust and special trust


Introduction
In the context of promoting green development, in the face of rapid urbanization, population congestion, traffic congestion, environmental pollution and other "urban diseases" [1,2], it is important to understand urban residents' perceptions and views on the current performance of green governance, as well as their suggestions for measures to improve the performance of green governance, in order to promote the collaborative governance of pluralistic social subjects and sustainable social development [3].
Trust, as an important social capital, has important positive functions for the functioning of the market economy, political and democratic participation and social solidarity and integration [4,5]. Therefore, to maintain and enhance the level of community trust has become an important part of modern countries to enhance the ability of social green governance [6]. Perceptions are formed when people acquire perceptual knowledge of information related to objective objects through information channels, and then process a large amount of perceived information in a comprehensive manner [7]. Urban residents' perception of green governance performance refers to their subjective perceptions and evaluations of the systems, mechanisms, arrangements, and regulations of green governance in the economic, political, and cultural fields, as well as their ability to manage various aspects of society by using this series of institutional measures of green governance, mainly including resource allocation, environmental governance, residents' satisfaction, and other aspects. In general, it has become a consensus among many scholars that community trust, as an intangible resource, plays a positive and facilitating role in governance performance [8,9], but the influencing mechanisms and pathways between community trust and green governance performance perception need to be further explored.
In the past, we focused on research in green governance and studied the impact of social capital on the perception of green governance performance, and confirmed that social capital has a significant positive impact on the perception of green governance performance. To further explore the impact path of social capital, we chose community trust, one of the key elements of social capital, and continued to explore the impact of community trust on the perception of green governance performance. First, we conducted a literature review on community trust and performance perceptions. Second, we propose the research method and model of this paper, namely, we adopt a mixed research strategy to collect data on "the impact of community trust on residents' perceptions of green governance performance" through questionnaire and interview methods. Third, the model results section, which mainly includes the results of confirmatory factor analysis, descriptive statistics, and regression analysis. Finally, the research questions are discussed and summarized.

Literature Review
The concept of "trust" has received significant academic attention since its inception, and in the 1990s, Western scholars gradually linked social capital to governance performance in empirical studies [10][11][12]. LaChapelle Paul and Stephen Mccool studied the implementation of wildland fire protection plans in two communities in the western United States, and found that the community with a higher level of trust had a better effect on the implementation of wildland fire protection plans [13]. Klijn et al. found that in various governance fields, the deepening of trust relationship will bring about better performance perception. It is known that the trust relationship between members facilitates the successful execution of the operation [14].
Community governance relies more on the active members of the community's residents, which means that residents who express trust in the community are most likely to be the initiators of community activities/collective action, while their perceived governance performance is higher [15]. In other words, people who have a high level of trust in their community are more likely to take the initiative to mobilize other residents to work together to solve public problems in their community, resulting in a higher perceived governance performance [16]. After studying social trust and the governance performance of residents' committees in 144 communities in Beijing, Chengdu and Xi'an, Yang Yi found that trust had a significant positive effect on governance performance [17] According to Wang Mei, community trust is an important condition for enhancing residents' capacity for self-governance and their participation in community governance [18]. Trust and cooperation among internal members help to circumvent opportunism and free-riding behavior and helps to resolve the challenges of collective action. Wu points out that community trust is a key resource for enhancing governance performance [19]. Firstly, community trust can promote harmonious and stable interpersonal relationships among members and enhance the sense of identity among residents [20]. Secondly, community trust can effectively reduce transaction costs and provide opportunities for internal members to interact and cooperate [21]. Finally, community trust can strengthen the power of mass self-governance and optimize the governance structure [22].
Academics have also tried to introduce community trust into the study of performance perceptions [23,24]. Researchers have generally concluded that community trust has a positive effect on performance perceptions, and that residents in areas with higher levels of community trust are better able to perceive local governance performance [25]. However, is there a similar effect between social capital and perceptions of green governance performance, and what are the specific transmission paths of this effect? These questions need to be further investigated.
This study mainly focuses on "community trust" and "green governance performance perception". By focusing on individual residents, we can understand their knowledge and understanding of current green governance performance, which not only highlights the dominant position of residents in green governance, but also further enriches relevant theoretical research.

Methods
This part begins with the design of the questionnaire, the selection of the sample group and the collection of relevant research data. Then, we explained the dependent and independent variables and controlled for confounding variables. Finally, the valid data obtained were collated and descriptive statistical analysis was carried out to construct the research model.

Study Area and Sample
In this study, a stratified random sampling method was used to select six districts and counties in Chengdu to distribute questionnaires offline. 300 questionnaires were distributed, and 295 questionnaires were returned. In the process of distributing the questionnaires, some of the respondents were also selected for targeted interviews to obtain a wealth of first-hand information.

Measurement of Community Trust
Regarding the measurement of community trust, we mainly draw on well-established scales developed by domestic and international scholars. Based on the Chinese context and the characteristics of the study participants, we propose to measure community trust by drawing on the Community Social Capital Questionnaire (cronbach's: 0.614) developed by Gui Yong and Huang Ronggui [26], which includes the questions "To what extent do you trust the neighborhood committee", "To what extent do you If there is a problem affecting the whole community, do you take the initiative to mobilize other residents to solve the problem together? In the past three months, have you received help from residents in your neighborhood" was used as a measure of community trust. The items were measured on a Likert scale, with a minimum score of 1 and a maximum score of 5, the higher the score, the higher the level of community trust.

Measurement of Green Governance Performance Perception
The measurement of green governance performance perception needs to develop a new measurement scale based on the reference of relevant scales. Combined with the General Office of the CPC Central Committee and The General Office of the State Council mentioned the green development indicator system in the "Evaluation and Assessment Measures for the Objectives of Ecological Civilization Construction". By referring to the research results of previous scholars, this study established three measurement dimensions of resource perception, environmental perception, and residents' satisfaction, thus constructing the scale of green governance performance perception.

Model
A multiple linear regression model was used in this study, with the independent and dependent variables being continuous variables. The control variables such as gender, age and education were categorical variables and these categorical variables were virtualized before being included in the regression model when conducting the regression analysis.
In the above equation, y is the explanatory variable, which is a continuous variable with j = 1, 2, 3 being resource perception, environmental perception, and resident satisfaction, respectively. T is community trust, an explanatory variable, and is a continuous variable. x is the control variable (containing gender, age, education, etc.). α and β are the coefficients. ε is the measurement error vector.

Confirmatory Factor Analysis
A validation factor analysis was conducted in this study using AMOS, and table 2 were produced based on the output data collated. according to this table, the standardized factor loadings for each question item were all greater than 0.6 and the SMC was greater than 0.36, indicating that the questions had adequate topic reliability, and the component reliabilities were all greater than 0.7, indicating that the scale had adequate internal consistency. In addition, the AVEs were all greater than 0.5, indicating that the scales have good convergent validity.
Based on the arithmetic results, table 3 were collated. it can be seen from the tables that although the AVE root values for some of the constructs are slightly less relevant than those for other relevant constructs, the overall differences between the three constructs are not significant. However, in general, the scale can be considered to have differential validity. Table 4 shows the descriptive statistics of the 295 public sample on each of the study variables, which can help us to understand the actual situation of the sample on variables such  as community trust and resource perception. The measurement scales for each variable in the table are uniformly scored using a 5-point Likert scale, with a minimum score of 1 and a maximum score of 5, and a median score of 3.

Descriptive Statistics
As can be seen from the data in the table, the mean value of community trust is 3.143, which is at a moderately high level, indicating that residents trust both the neighborhood committee and other members of the area. The overall mean value of residents' perception of green governance performance is 3.360, which is in the upper middle range. Among the three dimensions of public perception of green governance performance, the mean values of resource perception, environmental perception and resident satisfaction are all high, indicating that public perception of green governance performance is good. Overall, the standard deviations of each variable are small, indicating the stability of the data.

Regression Analysis
(1) Community trust and resource perception In this study, hierarchical regression analysis was used to firstly establish model 1 with demographic variables such as gender, age and education as predictor variables and resource perception as the dependent variable; then model 2 was established by adding community trust as a predictor variable and resource perception as the dependent variable to the original variables in model 1. The results of the hierarchical regression analysis of community trust on resource perception are shown in table 5.
Comparing model 2 with model 1, R 2 changed from 0.164 to 0.643, an improvement of 0.479, and the model fit was better. This indicates that community trust has a significant predictive effect on resource perceptions after controlling for the relevant demographic variables. The standardized regression coefficient for community trust on resource perception was 0.347, t=5.236 (p=0.020<0.05), indicating that community trust has a significant positive effect on resource perception, i.e., the higher the community trust the better the public perceives resources.
(2) Community trust and environmental perception The results of the hierarchical regression analysis of community trust on environmental perception are shown in table 6. Comparing model 4 with model 3, R 2 changed from 0.131 to 0.568, an improvement of 0.437, and the model fit was better. This indicates that community trust has a significant predictive effect on environmental perceptions after controlling for the relevant demographic variables. The standardized regression coefficient of community trust on environmental perception was 0.280, t=3.838 (p=0.000<0.05), indicating that community trust has a significant positive effect on environmental perception, i.e., the higher the community trust of the public, the higher their environmental perception.
(3) Community trust and resident satisfaction Model 5 was built by using demographic variables as predictor variables and resident satisfaction as the dependent variable; then model 6 was built by adding community trust as a predictor variable and resident satisfaction as the dependent variable to the original variables in model 5.
Comparing model 6 with model 5, R 2 changed from 0.143 to 0.613, an improvement of 0.469, and the model fit was better. This indicates that community trust has a significant predictive effect on resident satisfaction after controlling for the relevant demographic variables. The standardized regression coefficient of community trust on resident satisfaction was 0.416, t=6.026 (p = 0.000 < 0.05), indicating that community trust has a significant positive effect on resident satisfaction, i.e., the higher the community trust of the public, the higher the resident satisfaction.

Discussion
Our findings found a statistically significant relationship between community trust and perceptions of green governance performance. In addition, public perceptions of green governance performance in Chengdu, Sichuan Province, are at a moderate to high level, with residents' satisfaction being the highest, followed by resource perceptions and relatively low environmental perceptions. Combining the relevant literature and interview data, it is found that community residents are generally satisfied with the green governance performance, and most of them think that the resource allocation of the region is complete, but the level of environmental governance needs to be improved, and the regional pollution problems need to be solved. For example, the noise pollution is relatively serious, and the garbage sorting work is relatively ordinary.

Conclusion
This paper examines the impact of community trust on the perceived of green governance performance using community residents in the central city of Chengdu, Sichuan. The results show that community trust has a significant positive effect on residents' resource perception, environmental perception, and resident satisfaction. In other words, residents with higher levels of community trust have better perceptions of green governance performance. Specifically, if members trust each other, they are more able to stimulate cooperative behavior and facilitate collective action; at the same time, when the residents have a higher level of trust in the neighborhood committee, all community work is easier to carry out and the efficiency and effectiveness of the work will be significantly improved. Clearly, if the residents have a higher level of community trust, they tend to identify with and support local green governance initiatives more, and the perception of green governance performance is higher. This study was supported by the National Social Science Fund (Grant No.21AZD124).