Change for Entrepreneurial Chances?: E-Government in the European Union 2020 and 2040

Introduction

Governments and related organizations across the globe are running manifold programs bearing considerable investments to foster the implementation of innovative technologies into public services. The term e-government is used to describe this modernization of public administration, i.e., the facilitation and processing of public administration tasks by the means of information technology (Kollmann & Kayser, 2010). E-government activities are an important part of general e-business approaches that were embraced by European firms to realize cost-cutting potentials and the possibility to launch innovative products (Kollmann et al., 2009). These e-government activities do not only enhance administrative processes and facilitate citizen-to-government, government-to-government, and business-to-government communication, but also create new opportunities for innovative start-ups in the area of e-government. One of the first ventures following this trend was GovWorks (2000) at the beginning of this century. Despite its failure during the dot-com bubble burst, e-government is still a vital innovative field for entrepreneurship. The European Union (EU) (2009a) recently emphasized the need for a more mature and deepened relationship between the public and private sector for an improved e-government across Europe. Therefore, the EU promotes among other things the reduction of barriers for business start ups (EU, 2009a). This emanates from two perspectives. First, the EU seeks to improve their service delivery models by integrating and engaging with private sector companies in the area of e-government. Second, the EU aims at facilitating entrepreneurial activities, especially by small and medium-sized enterprises, since the administrative burden involved in dealing with governments is anticipated to be lowered by e-government activities. With the introduction of the Small Business Act (SBA) in 2008 the EU promoted measures to reduce the time associated with setting up a company (EU, 2008). Nevertheless, some member states such as the United Kingdom failed to date to implement the SBA despite the EU efforts to launch all policy and legislation actions required (EurActiv, 2010).