In this study the authors analyze the effects of e-government reforms that began in mid-90ies by confronting the promises which these reforms made to government performance in the period before and... Show More

In this study the authors analyze the effects of e-government reforms that began in mid-90ies by confronting the promises which these reforms made to government performance in the period before and after the reforms took place. The authors use fiscal and performance indicators of the Slovenian government and courts to argue that e-government did not yield any notable effects on the state performance. Finally, the authors analyze the reasons why e-government technology cannot be regarded as sustainable and suggest a different approach towards researching how to sustainably improve governance for generations to come.

Cross-organizational e-Government projects must comply with separate and alternative accounting systems. The compliance brings about two types of problems: the emergence of transaction costs because... Show More

Cross-organizational e-Government projects must comply with separate and alternative accounting systems. The compliance brings about two types of problems: the emergence of transaction costs because of having to create additional and often more complex, accounting systems and a reduction of financial autonomy and accountability of individual public agencies. Conceptually transaction cost theory, in particular through using the construction ‘asset specificity' and ‘uncertainty' can qualify these problems. Empirically, a case study approach helps to contextualize these problem in a given (inter-)organizational, economical and institutional environment. The present research employs these choices to explore how the Netherlands e-Government case of establishing national key registers affects the inter-organizational accounting practices and the financial autonomy of a single organization, the Dutch Kadaster. This domain study reveals that while cross-organizational e-Government projects indeed reach cost efficiency in back-office operations they also incur transaction costs in accounting. This increases the institutional uncertainty, while decreasing the asset specificity. Both effects imply a loss in autonomy and accountability of individual public organization, such as the Kadaster. Hence, while e-Government project may operate efficiently and effectively across organizations, it reduces that of individual organizations.

Consultative participation of citizens in political decision-making processes has been increasing in order to facilitate democratic legitimacy and responsiveness. Consequently, participatory budgets... Show More

Consultative participation of citizens in political decision-making processes has been increasing in order to facilitate democratic legitimacy and responsiveness. Consequently, participatory budgets have been established as a 'best practice' for consultative participation of citizens in political decision-making processes. The authors compare participatory budgets of 31 German municipalities. An analysis of differences between successfully and unsuccessfully rated participatory budgeting processes provides informative insights and allows for in-depth comparison on a municipal level. The authors show that external service providers and electronic participation channels significantly increase the number of participatory citizens and are positively connected with pursued objectives of dialog processes and public responsiveness as well as efficient and effective decisions. Furthermore, the acceptance of all participants proved to be a key factor for a successful public participation process. The authors' analysis opens up new starting points for further research.

More than a decade has passed since the launch of the first e-Government one-stop web portals, which concern central points for digital access by citizens, enterprises and government. Due to the... Show More

More than a decade has passed since the launch of the first e-Government one-stop web portals, which concern central points for digital access by citizens, enterprises and government. Due to the broad audience that these portals serve, various analyses have been performed concerning their effectiveness with regard to service delivery; trustworthiness with regard to service availability; usability; accessibility; and user satisfaction etc. The results from these analyses have extreme interest for governments, since they reflect government strategic planning, internal efficiency and effectiveness, while they have been utilized for their upgrades. E-Government portal upgrade appears to be something usual and various updates have been observed in most portals during this timeframe. This paper addresses and important issue: “do e-Government portal updates enhance user satisfaction?” To this end, a comparative qualitative evaluation of some major e-Government portals is performed, with the use of the American Customer Satisfaction Index (ACSI) during 2009 and 2012.

Governments are increasingly opening their datasets, allowing use. Drawing on a multi-method approach, this paper develops a framework for identifying factors influencing the adoption of Open... Show More

Governments are increasingly opening their datasets, allowing use. Drawing on a multi-method approach, this paper develops a framework for identifying factors influencing the adoption of Open Government Data (OGD) by private organisations. Subsequently the framework was used to analyse five cases. The findings reveal that for private organizations to use OGD, the content and source of the data needs to be clear, a usable open data license must be present and continuity of data updates needs to be ensured. For none of the investigated private organisations OGD was key to their existence. Organisations use OGD in addition to, or as an enhancement of their core activities. As the official OGD-channels are bypassed trustworthy relationships between the data user and data provider were found to play an important role in finding and using OGD. The findings of this study can help government agencies in developing OGD-policies and stimulating OGD-use.