**4. Results**

Based on the results of grounded theory and cognitive appraisal theory of emotion, this paper constructs a driving mechanism of public voice behavior: "stimulus-cognition-emotion-behavior" model. The model shows that there are causal relationships among cognition, emotion, and behavior. According to the cognitive appraisal theory of emotion, under the stimulation of external events, the external information obtained by individuals first enters the perceptual system for compilation and processing, forming specific cognitions. Cognitions trigger the individual's emotional response, and finally produces specific behavioral tendency [59].

#### *4.1. The Formation Process of Public Voice (Stimulus-Cognition-Emotion-Behavior)*

#### 4.1.1. Policy as the Stimulus

Public policy is the political and technical approach to solve problems, fundamentally, it is pragmatic [60]. Under the cooperative governance, the governmen<sup>t</sup> is no longer the only decision-maker, but the main participant plays a guiding role [49]. With the advent of the new Internet era, the impact of big data, cloud computing, and other technologies on policy formulation and implementation cannot be ignored. First of all, the Internet can optimize the link of policy-making, and the process of it can be completed with the help of the Internet, thus making policy-making more e fficient. Secondly, big data can provide a wider range of data sources for policy evolution. Through data mining and analysis, it can provide big data support for policy evolution, making policy formulation and implementation more reasonable. Finally, the open data system can further broaden the channels for the public to participate in policy discussions and make policy-making more democratic. Due to the immature application of big data by the governmen<sup>t</sup> and lack of professional talents, enterprises are required to provide technical support. The technical support of enterprises is more important for the formulation of policies under public health emergencies. As public health emergencies tend to be urgent, destructive, and uncertain, putting forward higher requirements for the timeliness, scientificity, and e ffectiveness of policies. In this case, it is very necessary for the governmen<sup>t</sup> to cooperate with enterprises to formulate policies. The governmen<sup>t</sup> is responsible for policy formulation and implementation, while enterprises take technological advantages to provide products or services to assist policy implementation.

#### 4.1.2. External Stimulus Leads to Perceived Policy E ffectiveness

According to the cognitive appraisal theory of emotion, when individuals encounter the external stimuli, they will experience two-stage cognitive appraisal processes: primary appraisal and secondary appraisal. In addition, through the appraisal, people can assess the relevance of external stimuli to themselves and whether the resources they have can cope with the situation [61]. In public health emergencies, the policy launched by government-enterprise cooperation is an external stimulus for the public. Additionally, public appraisal mainly focuses on whether the policy can achieve policy purpose and e ffectively solve specific public problems, that is, perceived policy e ffectiveness. Under the policy stimulation, the public will use the cognitive system to make evolution of it [62]. The perception of policy e ffectiveness reflects the individual's judgment of the correlation between the policy and himself and is an important way for policy to act on public behavior. A high level of perceived policy effectiveness indicates that the public believes the policy is beneficial to their daily life, while on the contrary, they consider that the policy has no significant positive impact or may pose a threat. Policy is the action route or method to guide the current and future decision-making, and its role should not be limited to solving the current problems, but also should be instructive for future development of society [63]. According to the results of analysis, the policy e ffectiveness in public health emergency includes crisis resolution and social normalization. In the case of public health emergencies, the first problem to be solved by policies is to reduce the adverse impact of emergencies, that is crisis resolution. On the premise that the crisis is under control, policies should also have e ffects of accelerating the social normalization and promoting economic recovery, that is, the social normalization function. Taking the Health Code policy as an example, if the public thinks that the Health Code policy cannot effectively control the spread of COVID-19, or cannot speed up work resumption, the public's perceived effectiveness of Health Code policy will be low. Otherwise, the perception will be high.

#### 4.1.3. Perceived Policy E ffectiveness Arouses Public Emotion

Emotions are the products of an individual's appraisal of the person–environment relationship and of grea<sup>t</sup> diagnostic value to help an individual identify what is important under a specific situation. Additionally, emotions vary with the change of appraisals [61]. The public's emotional response to policy is formed on the basis of perceived policy e ffectiveness. According to the cognitive appraisal

theory of emotion, emotion intuitively shows the public's evolution of external stimulus perception, and its core is evaluative cognition. Almost everything will stimulate people to produce emotion, no matter if it happens or not [62]. However, emotion cannot be aroused by external stimulus directly; the appraisal process of relationship between person–environment is necessary to evoke emotion. When individuals are in a certain situation, they will evaluate it, be satisfied or dissatisfied, beneficial or harmful, and make corresponding emotional reactions [59]. If perceived policy e ffectiveness is high, the public will have a positive emotion, or vice versa. Taking the Health Code policy as an example, di fferent perceptions of public policy e ffectiveness will stimulate di fferent emotions. When the public perceive that the Health Code policy can e ffectively control the spread of COVID-19 or accelerate economic recovery, they will generate positive emotions. Otherwise, they will hold negative emotions. Examples of comments about Health Code policy are as follows.

Comment 1: As I am from Hubei province, I didn't go back to my hometown, so I couldn't enter the market for 20 days. After having the health code, I entered the market for the first time without being stopped. It is easy to use and it's really convenient, give it a thumb up!

Comment 2: I'm in Fuyang, and I'm not even allowed to go to my husband's hometown in the countryside. I haven't left Fuyang for nearly a month. I haven't even gone to downtown or move around Fuyang. What the hell is this code? I don't understand. I'm so angry!

#### 4.1.4. Public Emotion Stimulates Public Voice

According to the cognitive appraisal theory of emotion, the cognition and appraisal of external environment will stimulate special emotions. Then, the emotion will motivate coping behaviors to prevent harm or to improve the prospects for benefit [64]. Public voice behavior is generated under the influence of public emotions. According to cognitive appraisal theory of emotion, emotional response will lead to an individual's specific behavior tendency to regulate the emotion (emotion-focused coping) or change for the better the problem (problem-focused coping) [61]. On the basis of the public perceived policy e ffectiveness, the emotional reaction is finally transformed into the driving force to improve the e ffectiveness of the policy, which urges the public to put forward a constructive voice or point out the problems existing in the policies and products. When the public believe the policy can effectively defuse the current crisis and benefit future development, they will hold positive emotions and employ behaviors that can maximize the policy benefits. However, when the public think that there are some defects in the process of policy implementation undermining the policy e ffectiveness, they will generate negative emotions and take actions to reduce potential harm. After analysis, it is found that public voice can be divided into two dimensions: policy voice and product voice. According to the content of voice, policy voice can be divided into policy evolution and policy implementation. Policy evolution voice is promotive voice and usually occurs when the public is in positive emotion, referring to the public's suggestions on the promotion and unification of policies across the nation. Policy implementation voice refers to the voice made by the public for the actual implementation process of policies. In a public health emergency, policy implementation voice is mainly in the form of pointing out defects in the process of policy implementation, and it usually happens when the public is in negative emotion. Public voice on products can be divided into product utility and potential risk. Product utility voice refers to the public's suggestions on improving product e fficiency and it includes both promotive voice as well as prohibitive voice. While potential risk voice is prohibitive voice, referring to the public's concern about the negative e ffects caused by enterprise's products. The examples of the Health Code policy are shown below.

Comment 3: Now in many provinces, the biggest problem is that people are not allowed to enter the community! Not even people with health codes! This is too unreasonable! If a policy is made, it is to be implemented. What good is policy if the implementation problem at the grassroots level is not solved?

Comment 4: The Health Code really gives me a grea<sup>t</sup> convenience in my life. It's easy to go out with it. I hope it can be promoted nationwide.

In conclusion, the formation process of public voice behavior conforms to the "stimulus-cognition-emotion-behavior" model of cognitive appraisal theory of emotion. Policy stimulus leads to the public's cognition of the effectiveness of policy, which arouses public emotion response and further leads to public voice behavior.

#### *4.2. The Dynamic Process of Public Voice on Policy Evolution*

The formation and evolution of policy is a dynamic and continuous process. Previous studies have paid more attention to the impact of public participation in the policy-making stage [65,66]. However, this study finds that after policies are made, public voice also has a grea<sup>t</sup> impact on the evolution and implementation of policies. Based on the results of grounded analysis, this paper divides the process of policy evolution into three stages: policy formation, policy promotion, and policy optimization, and constructs a dynamic mechanism of public voice to promote policy evolution and product innovation, as shown in Figure 2.

**Figure 2.** Model of the dynamic effect of public voice behavior on policy, results of grounded theory are shaded grey.

#### 4.2.1. Policy Formation Stage

The policy is formed in accordance with the rigorous policy-making process in order to solve specific public problems. As the output of the political system, the main function of policy is to solve social public problems effectively. As public health emergencies often pose a major threat to social security and public order, as well as the safety of citizens' lives and property, the policy under public health emergencies aims to resolve the crisis state timely and effectively and restore the normal life order as soon as possible [15]. As an external stimulus, the formation of policies will lead to the public's perceived policy effectiveness. At this stage, citizens' cognition of policy effectiveness mainly focuses on crisis resolution. Whether the policy can effectively alleviate the adverse impact of public health emergencies is an important factor affecting public emotion. When policy is implemented, the public will form the perception of whether the policy can resolve the crisis effectively. When perceived policy effectiveness is high, the public will have positive emotion and tend to conduct promotive voice. As the construction of national emergency managemen<sup>t</sup> system follows the basic principles of "ability-standard" and "center of gravity down", the local governmen<sup>t</sup> is in the front line when dealing with public health emergencies and bears the main responsibility. Therefore, the policies under public health emergencies are often formulated by the local government, and the superior governmen<sup>t</sup> selectively promotes the policies according to the evolution of the applicability. So the public will sugges<sup>t</sup> to promote policy across the country if they think the policy is effective enough. Besides, the public will provide promotive voice to improve product utility in a state of positive emotion. When the public perceive the policy is not effective enough, they will have negative emotion and tend to conduct a prohibitive voice. Public health emergencies prevent policy-making from following a strictly procedural process. The governmen<sup>t</sup> needs to complete the implementation of the policy in a limited time, and it is difficult to guarantee the implementation of the grassroots administrative staff in a short time [15]. Therefore, the prohibitive voice mainly focuses on pointing out the problems

existing in the implementation of the policy at the grassroots level. In the policy formation stage, as the implementation of enterprise's product auxiliary policy, the public's requirements for its e ffectiveness are more stringent. Therefore, the public will be more active in pointing out problems in the use of products.

#### 4.2.2. Policy Promotion Stage

Through the evolution and adoption of public voice, the governmen<sup>t</sup> improves the policy and policy evolution enters the policy promotion stage. As a new external stimulus, the improved policy continues to act on public cognition. More than that, the focus of perceived policy e ffectiveness begins to shift from crisis resolution to social normalization. Under the control of the government, the grassroots implementation has been further improved, and the e ffectiveness of policies to solve current problems (i.e., crisis resolution e ffectiveness) has been e ffectively played. However, the e ffects of policies cannot limit to provide methods to solve the current problems, but also play a guiding role in the future development of society [63]. Public health emergencies make society change from normal state to emergency state, which has a grea<sup>t</sup> impact on public life and work [15]. Therefore, on the basis of effective resolution of the crisis, whether the policy can further promote the recovery of social normality has been widely concerned by the public. Under the influence of public emotion caused by the cognition of policy utility, voice behavior emerges. In the stage of policy promotion, public promotive voice is policy unification. Government policy-making under public health emergencies emphasizes the local government's ability of 'territorial management'. However, with the promotion of local policies across the country, the problem of compatibility between policies begins to emerge. The inconsistency of policies in di fferent regions will bring many inconveniences to the public. Therefore, in order to improve the e ffectiveness of policies, the public suggests that policies should be unified across the country. At this stage, with policy promotion, the audience range of the product is constantly expanding, the public's attention to the product utility is also increased. Improvement suggestions to enhance the e ffectiveness are still the focus of voice. However, in addition to the utility of the product, the public also began to pay attention to the use experience of the product, pointing out the problems of the system in the use process.

#### 4.2.3. Policy Optimization Stage

Under the influence of public voice, the governmen<sup>t</sup> and enterprises constantly improve the policies and products, and the policy evolution enters the optimization stage. At this time, with the public health emergency in the rehabilitation stage, the e ffectiveness of the policy has been played out to a greater extent; the public urgently need to return to normal life and work state, so the focus of perceived policy e ffectiveness is social normalization. Public voice is still a ffected by the emotional response based on cognition, and the content of public voice has changed further. Considering the adverse impact of public health emergencies, with the purpose of preventing the recurrence of the public health emergency, the public sugges<sup>t</sup> that the policy should be normalized. Policy normalization can predict the occurrence of public health emergencies in the early stage and minimize the loss. In addition, the public begin to pay attention to the coverage of the policy, pointing out that the omission of the population covered by the policy may have a negative impact on the fairness. With regards to the products of enterprises, the public voice focuses on the risks of long-term use of products. Products are tools for enterprises to participate in cooperative governance and used to supply policy implementation. With the help of products, enterprises take part of the responsibilities originally belonging to the government, which will cause public concern.

To sum up, public voice plays an important role in the evolution of policies. First, public opinion provides the widest source of information for policy feedback. Public health emergencies require the governmen<sup>t</sup> to formulate e ffective policies in the shortest time based on the least information and resources, and the e ffectiveness of the policies is uncertain [15]. The public voice gives quick feedback to the policy, which provides the basis for the governmen<sup>t</sup> to evaluate the e ffectiveness of the policy. Second, the public voice expresses the public interest demands and promotes the policy to be more democratic and e fficient [67]. In order to gain more and more public support in the process of policy-making, public voice is an important consideration for the governmen<sup>t</sup> in the process of formulating and implementing policies. Finally, public voice behavior also plays an important role in product improvement and innovation. It can be seen from the analysis, that in the policy of governmen<sup>t</sup> enterprise cooperation, due to the particularity of the product, the public's requirements are more stringent. Voice for product improvement aims at making it more suitable to assist policy implementation, and it will provide an important reference for enterprise product innovation.
