Exploring e-maturity in Italian local governments: empirical results from a three-step latent class analysis

Abstract

This article undertakes a quantitative and holistic approach to frame a model of e-maturity in local governments, defined as the extent to which technologies permeate public service delivery. Moreover, the study adds evidence on the performance associated with different levels of e-maturity. In so doing, we collect survey data from 814 Italian local governments and integrate it with secondary sources. We propose a new angle for assessing e-maturity at the local government level, where the novel approach is the categorisation of public services on the basis of their final users. The application of a latent class analysis shows that the level of e-maturity is quite limited among Italian local governments and that most of them tend to prioritise government-to-business rather than government-to-citizen services in their digitisation process. A high level of e-maturity is associated with greater effectiveness rather than efficiency. Points for practitioners • When assessing e-maturity, municipalities should treat differently Government to Citizen and Government to Business services. • Currently, municipalities are focused more on the digitization of Government to Business services. • Socio-economic and environmental factors have a partial effect on e-maturity. The size of the municipality and the income per capita are the most significant indicators. • E-maturity raises effectiveness without a clear effect on efficiency. Only when reaching a fully accomplished e-maturity a slight effect on municipalities' expenditures can be detected.