E-Cohesion maturity: How to measure the efficiency of digital cohesion policy

Abstract

This paper focuses on the maturity of e-government services on the domain of European fund management, to explore the measurability of potential efficiency gains.
 The practical relevance of the topic is that the current European legislation prescribes that Member States shall offer electronic fund management services to beneficiaries to foment the efficient use of European Structural and Investment Funds. The main driver of this concept is the reduction of administrative burdens which can be achieved by the Europe-wide utilization of paperless fund management tools and by harnessing the interoperability of information systems. In the scientific discourse, the above concept is labelled as “e-Cohesion”. However, the legislation sets quite broad requirements for its implementation, so the e-Cohesion landscape and the intended efficiency gains may appreciably differ from country to country. The exploration of this “digital efficiency divide” offers a new relevant research opportunity. Therefore, this article is dealing with the measurability of efficiency of e-tools to methodologically support Member States in the realization and fine-tuning of their national e-Cohesion concepts.
 It is presented in this paper that the level of potential efficiency gains is connected to e-government readiness, i.e. the maturity of e-Cohesion systems. The paper, therefore, systematically reviews the relevant e-Government literature on the issue of maturity. Based on this, it aims to identify the most important models and methodological elements which address the main attributes of e-Cohesion to pave the way for further empirical research and the creation of an e-Cohesion-specific maturity model.