Public value of e-government services through emerging technologies

• DOI: https://doi.org/10.1108/IJPSM-03-2018-0072
• Pages: 530-545
• Published date: 08 July 2019
• Date: 08 July 2019
• Author: David Valle-Cruz
• Subject Matter: Public policy & environmental management

Public value of e-government

services through

emerging technologies

David Valle-Cruz

Faculty of Engineering,

Autonomous University of the State of Mexico, Toluca, Mexico

Abstract

Purpose –The purpose of this paper is to identify the factors that generate public value in e-government

services through emerging technologies and to answer the following question: Which are the factors that

generate public value, in the e-government services, through emerging technologies?

Design/methodology/approach –Based on a multivariate linear regression model, the author tests the

public value of e-government services through emerging technologies in the metropolitan area of the Toluca

Valley. Five factors are evaluated to understand public value: anti-corruption strategies, access to public

information, transparency platforms, social media and service kiosks.

Findings –Smart strategies and technologies must be guided by the generation of public value through

anti-corruption strategies, open data, access to information and data privacy. The efforts of governments

should focus on avoiding corruption, making government transparent, opening data and correct handling of

information privacy. Technology is an important mechanism to boost public value generation.

Research limitations/implications –Mexico is a developing country, and there are very few emerging

technologies implemented in e-Government.

Practical implications –The results are important to identify good practices for the generation of public

value in the e-Government area.

Originality/value –The study of emerging technologies is a new area in government, and this paper studies

the generation of public value through emerging technologies in a developing country.

Keywords Emerging technologies, Public value, E-government, Smart technologies, Smart strategies

Paper type Research paper

Introduction

Emerging technologies are disruptive in organizations and impact on competitiveness,

efficiency and the creation of value. Although there is much literature related to the study of

IT in organizations, very little has reported about the effects of emerging technologies and

public value on developing countries, especially for the design of smart strategies in

government. There are different kinds of technologies that have been adopted by

organizations throughout history; one important feature of emerging technologies is to

generate changes in organizations. The effects of these technologies have been beneficial, as

they generate positive results in terms of efficiency, transparency, accountability, as well as

in the interaction between government and citizens. Some of these technologies are called

“smart”because they work connected to the Internet, and they are characterized by

improving efficiency, reducing costs, improving communication and interaction between

people, as well as generating networking and collaboration (e.g. social networks). These

kinds of technologies also perform activities that were previously exclusive to human

beings (such as mechanical robots, service kiosks and ATMs), but nowadays, these

technologies are replacing people in their daily and routine activities.

The implementation of public policies supported by emerging technologies is important

for the generation of smart strategies since they are part of a series of government initiatives

and the potential benefits create public value because they improve the processes within

governments, as well as the delivery of services for citizens. This paper focuses on

identifying the most important technological factors, as well as aspects driven by emerging

International Journal of Public

Sector Management

Vol. 32 No. 5, 2019

pp. 530-545

© Emerald PublishingLimited

0951-3558

DOI 10.1108/IJPSM-03-2018-0072

Received 12 March 2018

Revised 15 October 2018

21 December 2018

Accepted 24 January 2019

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

www.emeraldinsight.com/0951-3558.htm

530

IJPSM

32,5

technologies, that generate public value in the metropolitan zone of Toluca Valley, with the

objective of generate empirical evidence in the area of smart technologies and public value.

Public value is more than the summation of individual preferences of users or producers

of public services. The judgment of what public value means is collectively built through

deliberation involving elected and appointed government officials and key stakeholders

(Stoker, 2006, p. 42). Public value refers to goals and the performance of public policies; it is

related to activities produced or supported by governments (including services), covering

outcomes as trust and legitimacy. Public value is the value created by governments through

services, law regulations, and different actions. The value is determined by citizens’

preferences refracted through the decisions of elected politicians (Kelly et al., 2002, pp. 3-4).

Nowadays, public value is an important issue for governments around the world, and it

is a difficult commitment for public servants toward citizens. New and smart technologies

help to improve e-government services in digitalized nations. For this reason, governments

are implementing useful technologies to deliver better e-government services and improve

interactions with citizens (G2C) that translate into public value. For example, technologies

such as social media have changed the G2C interaction and enable citizens to participate in a

“virtual scenario”(Criado et al., 2013; Holgersson and Karlsson, 2014). In this manner,

technology represents an important factor to generate public value because it boosts service

delivery, the interaction between public servants and citizens (G2C), transparency, and

efficiency (Gil-Garcia and Pardo, 2005; Valle-Cruz et al., 2016), but public value generation

requires budget-short governments to look for innovative ways to transform and improve

their operations and service provisioning models (Klievink et al., 2016).

Governments have selected, developed and implemented new technologies that focus on

the delivery of services oriented to citizenship: innovative technology projects that generate

public value and have improved services and tax collection (some of these technologies are

emergent for developing countries). Therefore, some researchers have specifically studied

the effects of emerging technologies in different areas of e-government, considering them as

factors in the transformation of administrative reforms (Gil-Garcia et al., 2007, 2014). This

way, technology has affected the public perception of their governments, e-government, and

public value, among other factors.

Although there is literature about public value, its implications for governments, and

the benefits to citizens, there is a gap related to the public value generated by their

e-governments, even more for cases of developing countries (Whitson and Davis, 2001;

Grimmelikhuijsen, 2012; Abu-Shanab et al., 2013; Barbosa et al., 2013; Alomari et al., 2014).

For this reason, an analysis focused on stakeholders, on the expectations and opinions of

users (citizenship) about the development of e-government, can be useful in the design of

services and in the evaluation of their efficiency (Axelsson et al., 2013; Jun et al., 2014). This

situation gives feedback to governments in order to decide which technologies and

strategies will generate the value.

The purpose of the paper is to identify the factors that generate public value in

e-government services through emerging technologies and to answer the following question:

Which are the factors that generate public value, in the e-government services, through

emerging technologies? E-government strategies are important to implement smart

technologies and use them for e-government services implementation; the e-government

represents an important platform to support smart strategies and technologies. For this

reason, the author tests a model for assessing the public value of e-government services,

through emerging technologies, in the metropolitan area of the Toluca Valley, for the

implementation of smart strategies.

This paper is divided into six sections, including this ongoing introduction. The second

section is a literature review related to public value and emerging technologies. The third

section describes methods based on a multivariate linear regression model to evaluate the

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Public value of

e-government

services