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eGovernment: a driving force for innovation in the public sector?

Lohmeier, Andreas (2012) eGovernment: a driving force for innovation in the public sector?

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Abstract:Innovation in the public sector is one of the central aspects of public sector reforms. An inno-vative public sector is relevant for increasing the productivity and quality of public services, which are becoming more important in the competition between regions and states. Given the procedural nature of many government tasks, the adoption of new information and com-munication technologies (ICT), especially electronic government (eGovernment) has become critical for government organizations. In the last years there is a growing recognition to inves-tigate the relationship of eGovernment and innovation in the public sector. Moreover there is a lack in research on factors, mainly public sector workforce skills, organizational barriers and decision-making strategies, which are assumed to affect this relationship. Such research efforts are crucial for formulating policies and strategies for effective governance as well as for monitoring and evaluating the impact of eGovernment on public sector innovation. There-fore the main research question of the assignment is as follows: What is the influence of eGovernment on innovation in the public sector and how do pub-lic sector workforce skills, organizational barriers and decision-making strategies affect this relationship? Based on the results of the Innobaromter 2010 report published by the European Commis-sion and Gallup Europe, a research-based performance-management consulting company, this master assignment investigates via correlation and moderated regression analysis the relationship between the supply-side of eGovernment and process innovation in the public sector and whether public sector workforce skills, organizational barriers and the decision-making strategy (top-down / bottom-up) affect this relationship. The findings show that public sector organizations which implement eGovernment solutions from the supply point of view are more successful in terms of process innovation. Moreover the moderation effect of public sector workforce skills delineates an inverse u-curve relationship. The relationship between eGovernment and process innovation is more strongly with medium workforce skills and weaker with low and high workforce skills. In addition the results also show that eGovern-ment negatively and weaker influences process innovation when more organizational barri-ers exist. With a look on the decision-making strategy as moderator, the findings illustrate that the decision-making strategy of public sector organizations moderate the relationship between eGovernment and process innovation such that the relationship will be positively and slightly stronger with bottom-up strategies and weaker with top-down strategies. All in all this paper contributes to the debate towards the influence of eGovernment on public sector innovations and highlights some academic and practical implications as well as directions for future research. The findings of the assignment can be used by policy makers as well as public sector managers and taken as necessary information to create effective public sector governance and use of eGovernment to stimulate public sector innovation under cer-tain conditions. In addition the findings cannot only be used by people from the public sector but also by managers from the private sector. For instance, managers of IT service provider can recognize the needs of the public sector and the importance of eGovernment. This could be a hint and motivation to develop further software products, consulting as well as training approaches in the field of eGovernment in collaboration with public sector organizations.
Item Type:Essay (Master)
Faculty:BMS: Behavioural, Management and Social Sciences
Subject:85 business administration, organizational science
Programme:Business Administration MSc (60644)
Link to this item:https://purl.utwente.nl/essays/61902
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