E-Government as an Innovative Product: Theories and Case Study - Information and Communication Technologies in Public Administration - page 124

Abstract
E-government was first introduced more than 20 years ago as an ambi-
tious “vehicle,” which would result in a better, more efficient and effec-
tive, transparent, and accountable government. However, after all these
years and tremendous funding, scholars argue over the effectiveness of
e-government, and various types of failures are being discussed: project
failures, adoption, online bureaucratic processes, delays in objectives,
and so forth. Although all agree on the potential of e-government, the
performance of the existing efforts appears to lag far behind what was
expected. To this end, e-government is starting to be viewed more as
an alternative channel for citizens to access their government, rather
than an innovative product for organizational success. The aim of this
chapter is to consider e-government as an “innovative product” for the
public sector and to suggest e-government deployment with the means
of innovation management. Respective theories are discussed and
speculations are made for such an e-government alignment. Moreover,
data from an analysis of Twitter feeds, after the failed roll out of the
Healthcare.gov website, or the Obamacare website, in the United States
are used to examine this theory.
Keywords: e-government, innovation management, social media analysis,
performance
6.1 introduction
E-government was first introduced in the early 1990s as a means for governments
to utilize information and communications technologies (ICTs) to become more
effective and efficient in delivering information and services to the public; more
accountable and transparent regarding its internal processes, procurement, and
auctioning; more open with regard to citizen engagement in decision and policy
making; even more friendly; and able to deliver customized and modern services
(Heeks & Bailur, 2007; Kim, Pan, & Pan, 2007).
However, after all these years, e-government outcomes are being questioned,
and various scholars have argued about its potential. Failures, which vary from not
establishing project success, to missing citizen expectations of adoption, even to
preferences in turning back to traditional channel selection (i.e., face-to-face visits
and voice phone calls), are being illustrated in the literature (Heeks & Bailur, 2007;
Reddick & Turner, 2012).
On the other hand, scholars try to reach solutions that can enhance e-government
development, and various proposals have been given so far, some of them worth
mentioning, including the following: management frameworks that emphasize