E-government adoption in small Italian municipalities

Abstract Purpose - Out of 8101 Italian municipalities, the majority (72%) represent small municipalities accounting for 10,590,728 inhabitants out of a total of 58,571,711 nationally (source: Italian Institution of Statistics – ISTAT, survey 2005). In this setting, the aim of the paper is to explore the level of e-government adoption in small Italian municipalities, in coherence with the action plans suggested by the main National Institution (CNIPA, 2007) on the subject Design/methodology/approach - Adopting an empirical approach, we conducted a survey on 49 small municipalities, through a questionnaire and in-depth interviews to political and managerial decision makers and IT officers. Findings The survey suggests some technical reasons concerning a lack of infrastructure and IT services (e.g. back up, security, disaster recovery) and some managerial reasons related both to a lack of strategic vision of information needs and to an inadequacy of requested skills and competencies. Research limitations/implications –The research reported here is based on a survey on 49 small municipalities located in a single area. The findings of this research may lead to further research on a large sample of municipalities located in several geographic areas. Practical implications – Our findings imply that small municipalities will have to redefine their programme priorities to respond to a new IT context. Originality/value - In spite of the efforts by both Government and the EU, the quali-quantitative results show that the adoption of e-government has not taken off in small Italian municipalities. Keywords: e-government, local government, small municipalities, IT services, IT skills, managerial reform Article type: research paper E-government is one of most interesting innovations introduced in the field of public administration in the late 1990s, although it has not been clearly defined and understood among governments, scholars and practitioners. In this study, e-government is defined as “the use of new information and communication technologies (ICTs) by governments as applied to the full range of government functions. In particular, the networking potential offered by the Internet and related technologies has the potential to transform the structures and operation of government (OECD, 2001)”. Egovernment is expected, at least, to expand and extend the ability of government organizations to serve their constituencies and to promote a host of other, mainly positive, benefits to both government and its citizens (Norris, Fletcher and Holden, 2001).