Resource Substitution: Local Governments' Issue Attention and Policy Reinvention

ABSTRACT Research on policy reinvention, where a government modifies rather than replicates policy innovations introduced by other governments, has progressed significantly, but how it is influenced by the government's issue attention has not been thoroughly examined. This study introduces a resource substitution framework, in which issue attention serves as a type of organizational resource that not only promotes policy reinvention directly but also compensates for deficiencies in systematic resources. Focusing on the organizational structuring policy regarding public data governance in Chinese cities from 2015 to 2023, we employ a directed dyadic‐based Heckman sample selection model with exclusion restrictions to test the hypotheses. The results demonstrate that issue attention significantly promotes policy reinvention, particularly in resource‐constrained settings, where it acts as a functional substitute for systemic resources. These findings contribute to a broader understanding of issue attention and clarify the conditions under which it drives policy reinvention.