Collaborative e-Government: impediments and benefits of information-sharing projects in the public sector

Abstract

Information-sharing projects are becoming increasingly important in both public and private organizations. Generally, organizations base their decision to move forward with an information-sharing project on the project's expected benefits such as better services, operational savings, and increased program effectiveness. Clearly, potential impediments particular to the government environment could limit the attainment of benefits, jeopardizing the project's business case and even the project itself. Yet, we know very little about how users’ perceived impediments affect a project's expected benefits in collaborative digital government initiatives. Using data from six public sector information-sharing projects, this paper reveals how some managerial and cultural impediments (e.g., control-oriented management) limit perceptions of expected benefits. Surprisingly, political impediments were not found to significantly affect the expectations of benefits. Additionally, the paper provides managers with specific advice on how to better understand users’ perceptions and expectations. The paper should be of interest to both academicians and practitioners who are interested in government information technology implementation, in general, and collaborative e-Government, in particular.