Creating public value through smart technologies and strategies. From digital services to artificial intelligence and beyond

• DOI: https://doi.org/10.1108/IJPSM-07-2019-0178
• Pages: 438-450
• Published date: 08 July 2019
• Date: 08 July 2019
• Author: J. Ignacio Criado,J. Ramon Gil-Garcia
• Subject Matter: Public policy & environmental management

Creating public value through

smart technologies and strategies

From digital services to artificial intelligence

and beyond

J. Ignacio Criado

Department of Political Science and International Relations,

Universidad Autónoma de Madrid, Madrid, Spain, and

J. Ramon Gil-Garcia

University at Albany, State University of New York, Albany, New York, USA and

Universidad de las Americas Puebla, Cholula, Mexico

Abstract

Purpose –The purpose of this paper is to introduce the special issue about generation of public value

through smart technologies and strategies. The key argument is that smart technologies have the potential to

foster co-creation of public services and the generation of public value in management processes, based on the

collaborative, social and horizontal nature of these smart technologies. Understanding these processes from a

public management perspective is the purpose of this paper and the rest of the special issue.

Design/methodology/approach –The approach to this paper is a theoretical and conceptual review,

whereas practical implications both for scholars and practitioners arise from the review of the literature and

the conceptual approximation to the notion of smartness in technologies and government. This approach is

rooted in the potential of the latest smart technologies and strategies to transform public administrations and

to better understand and cope societal problems.

Findings –The conceptual and theoretical perspective of this paper offers ideas for future developments.

The content of this paper shows that new smart technologies and strategies will shape, and will be shapedby,

the future of public organizations and management. This paper illustrates the process of change in public

value generation over time, as a result of different public management paradigms (from traditional public

administration to new public management), but also different types of technologies (from mainframes to

websites and social media and beyond). The empirical evidence of the articles of this special issue supports

this conclusion; that open and collaborative innovation processes developed under this emergent

technological wave could become encouraging transformative practices in the public sector.

Research limitations/implications –The theoretical and conceptual nature of this paper needs further

empirical research to validate some of the discussed assumptions and ideas.

Originality/value –Although this paper is oriented to present the main contents of the special issue, it also

provides an original approach to the theme of public value generation using smart technologies and strategies

in public sector management.

Keywords Artificial intelligence, Social media, Open data, Public management, Blockchain,

Open government, Smart technologies, Smart government

Paper type General review

International Journal of Public

Sector Management

Vol. 32 No. 5, 2019

pp. 438-450

Emerald Publishing Limited

0951-3558

DOI 10.1108/IJPSM-07-2019-0178

Received 1 July 2019

Accepted 1 July 2019

The current issue and full text archive of this journal is available on Emerald Insight at:

www.emeraldinsight.com/0951-3558.htm

© J. Ignacio Criado and J. Ramon Gil-Garcia. Published by Emerald Group Publishing Limited.

This article is published under the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY 4.0) licence. Anyone may

reproduce, distribute, translate and create derivative works of this article (for both commercial &

non-commercial purposes), subject to full attribution to the original publication and authors. The full

terms of this licence may be seen at http://creativecommons.org/licences/by/4.0/legalcode

Corrigendum: It has come to the attention of the publisher that the article J. Ignacio Criado and

J. Ramon Gil-Garcia “Creating public value through smart technologies and strategies: from digital services

to artificial intelligence and beyond”published in the International Journal of Public Sector Management in

Vol. 32 No. 5 did not include the following funding acknowledgment: Project Grant Local Public

Governance through Technologies for Transparency, Participation, and Public Innovation, Ministry of

Science and Universities, Spain (Reference No. RTI2018-095344-A-I00). This error was introduced by the

authors and has now been corrected in the online version. The authors sincerely apologise for this.

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