Local Public Administrations Research Articles

Technology Adoption and Innovation in Public Services: The Case of E-Government in Italy

Using data on 1,176 Italian municipalities in 2005, this paper discusses a number of factors associated with the development of a particular type of innovative activities, namely e- government services supplied by local public administrations (PAs). We find that municipalities which got involved into e-government are larger, carry out more in-house ICT activities and are more likely to have intranet infrastructures, relative to PAs that do not offer front office digitalised services. They are also generally located in regions with relatively large shares of firms using or producing ICT, where many other municipalities offer digitalised services, and where concentration of inhabitants in metropolitan areas is not very high. The range and quality of e-government services supplied by local PAs tend to increase with their stock of ICT competencies, with their efforts to train workers, and with their ability to organize efficient interfaces with end-users. Moreover, there is a correlation between the range and quality of e-government services offered and the broadband infrastructure development of the geographic area in which local PAs are located. In more general terms, we show that the combination of internal competencies and context specific factors is different when explaining the decision to start e-government activities vs. the intensity of such activities. Regional factors, relating to both demand and supply of services, appear to affect only the decision to enter e-government activities. Competencies needed to expand and improve the quality of services are much more numerous and complex than the ones associated with the mere decision to start e-government activities.

An Analysis of the Adoption of Open Source Software by Local Public Administrations

The wide diffusion of open source software (OSS) is driving discussion among scholars on a set of issues, including its adoption by public administrations (PA). Previous works discussed a few factors that drive the decision to adopt OSS and did not address the potential benefits in terms of e-government that OSS may bring to PA. This paper fills these gaps. The analysis is based on the Emilia-Romagna region of Italy and studies the adoption of software (both proprietary and open source) by local PA. The results show there is increased adoption of OSS in several different domains of application, both servers and desktop clients. Among the motivations to adopt OSS, dependence on software suppliers is important. Its adoption also positively affects the variety and extent of interactivity of local public e-services.

An analysis of the implementation of an environmental management system in a local public administration

The Environmental Management System (EMS) is commonly implemented in private firms. However, on the basis of a strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats (SWOT) analysis, our work analyzes the consequences of implementing an EMS within the context of local public administrations, particularly regarding the City Council of Ohanes in Almería (Spain). This is the first European corporation to implement an EMS according to the ISO 14001 Standard, certified by the Spanish Association of Normalization and Certification. Its analysis would be equivalent to the Shumpeterian “market innovator study”, so that public administration “followers” can take advantage of the derived benefits and of minimizing the negative effects of such an experience. On the other hand, we show that the economic and environmental advantages derived from the EMS go beyond the activities that the City Council is in charge of. They have spillover effects that extend them to all economic activities in the municipality and these effects are expected to be increased in the medium and long-term perspective. In this paper, we compare the costs and benefits that the municipality obtains in two cases: the City Council implements the EMS or it does not implement it. The main objective of this article is to show the economic and environmental advantages obtained by a municipality when it is only the City Council who is implementing an EMS. It is logical to suppose that this case study can stimulate other municipalities to use this instrument, even if the economic and environmental characteristics of the municipality are different.

L’approvisionnement de la Bretagne en matières riches en protéines : situation actuelle et scénarios d’évolution à l’horizon 2015

Brittany which is one of the main European areas in term of animal compound feed production and high protein feed consumption, is for his supply strongly dependant on external areas including foreign countries and other French regions. A prospective work based on a simulation model named FEEDSIM has been developed at the regional level associating economics actors and local public administrations. This paper presents some methodological aspects, some general hypothesis concerning three scenarios at the 2015 horizon and some results concerning more specifically regional animal productions and means of supplying (nature of meals and cakes used in compound feed industry and in direct, transportation by road and rail, activities of the different Britain and Atlantic area ports, etc.). This paper also presents some main orientations for the continuation of this work.

Mrs Miller Moves House: The Interoperability of Local Public Services in Europe

This article analyses the political, social, economic and technological dimensions of interoperability of information and communication technologies in the services of local council and public administrations. New empirical research features an everyday life-event: a hypothetical Mrs Miller moving house. Seven councils from six EU states detail how interoperable their local services are and their plans and perspectives for interoperability. The article argues that interoperability is best conceptualized holistically and is not only a technical issue. It concludes with an analysis and comments on public policy.

Good practice in best practice: the use of best practice case studies in service innovation by local public administrations

Standards and best practice play a profound role in innovation processes. Whilst all best practices are contextually defined, they must also reference external standards and change processes. Thus, the relationship between an innovation and accepted standards is an important feature of innovation processes. This paper focuses on the neglected area of innovation in public administration services. It surveys the tendency of public administrations to adopt extended enterprise organisational forms and to use dynamic and informal standards such as best practice case studies. This point is demonstrated by referring to recent case-based research in public administrations. The paper examines the changing form and content of standards for innovation processes and reviews the theoretical and practical problems in their use by innovators. It suggests a typology of case studies and practical guidelines for their use in innovation. Copyright , Beech Tree Publishing.

Introducing an infrastructure for joined-up-government in local public administration: a West Lothian case study

This paper analyses some first steps towards joining-up-government and creating an Information Society at a local level. It presents a case study from West Lothian, Scotland of early steps towards a joined-up technological and organisational infrastructure shared by all public administrations serving the area. Using Molina’s sociotechnical constituency approach, it explores how the goals of improving services, deploying information and communications technologies and joining-up government integrate with to ecommerce, eworking and tele-democracy. The paper shows the implementation of the Information Society by local public administrations to be evolutionary processes of sociotechnical constituency building. It discusses the relevance of the West Lothian case study for current theoretical debate, public policies and research programmes, and provides a practical checklist of points for practitioners of the Information Society at a local level.

The use of Call Centres by local public administrations

European local public administrations (PA) are rapidly adopting information and communications technologies often with a view to offering e-commerce. Call Centres (CCs) feature prominently in the technology mix used by private sector e-commerce, but as a survey in this paper shows, CCs are less often used in public sector. This paper analyses the differences between private and public sector commerce and their implications for public sector e-commerce and its prospective use of CCs over the next ten years. It outlines the evolution of CC technologies and argues that current developments make the technology increasingly appropriate for the public sector. A model of e-commerce featuring connectivity, interactivity and agility is developed in the paper. From this it is concluded that many of the advantages from the use of CCs by PAs, are in system integration and process re-engineering — attributes positioned in terms of bridging technology and acting as a learning organisation. From this perspective, the paper concludes that CCs are likely to increasingly feature in the information and communications technology-mix for e-commerce delivery of PAs over the next ten years.