P11 SIG Behavioural & Experimental Public Management

Panel Member(s) & Contact Details

Corresponding chair: Nick Petrovsky, City University of Hong Kong: npetrovs@cityu.edu.hk

Review Group Chair: Oliver James, University of Exeter, UK: O.James@exeter.ac.uk

Summary

This panel invites papers that apply behavioural science to public management, with a strong emphasis on experimental methods such as lab, field, and survey experiments. It welcomes both completed research papers and well-developed experimental design papers, encouraging open science practices and consideration of societal impact. The panel builds on a successful tradition at IRSPM, fostering global participation and diversity across career stages, methodologies, and research interests.

Description

This panel for IRSPM 2026 will invite papers that employ a behavioural perspective, defined broadly as theoretical or empirical contributions that integrate psychological and behavioural science insights into public management research (Grimmelikhuijsen et al. 2017). The papers may employ different methodologies including experimentation, observational studies, computational text analysis, qualitative methods, or mixed methods. However, a core theme of the panel is studies that employ experimental methods, including lab, field, or survey experiments (James, Jilke and Van Ryzin 2017). For example, papers may include applications of behavioural science that address questions of importance to progressing theory, informing practice, or replicating prior experimental work.

We will invite two types of papers:

First, research papers that report on the theory, methods, and findings of research that has already been conducted but we request that they clearly set out their research questions, methods, results and that they draw out implications of findings. We encourage submissions to follow open science practices for instance by pre-registering theory-testing experiments prior to raising data but this is not a requirement.

Second, design papers that present fully developed (experimental) designs but are still work in progress will also be included. These design papers should include theory and its empirical implications (potentially including hypotheses), a description of details of the experiment(s), a plan for implementation and the assessment of minimal sample size needed for detecting meaningful effects. The inclusion of design papers encourages pre-review and critical feedback on experimental designs before pre-registration and data collection. Design papers that include a consideration of societal impact, perhaps even a societal business model are highly encouraged.

We anticipate a balance between both kinds of papers rather than a preponderance of only one kind

The panel proposal builds on the continued success of similar panels on behavioural and experimental approaches to public management over the last seven years at IRSPM conferences, which have attracted a growing number of high-quality submissions from a diverse group of scholars.

Building on our past practice, we will encourage paper submissions from all regions of the world and from researchers at various career stages, including doctoral students and postdocs. We encourage a diversity of presenters in terms of region, gender, career stage, methodological approach, and substantive research interests. Each panel session will include up to four papers and 1.5 hours overall. Each presentation will be followed by comments to be provided by co-discussants, the participants, and the session chairs. Presenters will be allocated to panels based on the topic of their paper. Our approach has helped turn this young SIG into a vibrant community of international scholars.