TY  - JOUR
A1  - Marienfeldt, Justine
T1  - Three paths to e-service availability
BT  - a fuzzy set qualitative comparative analysis among the EU member states
JF  - International journal of public sector management
N2  - Purpose This study aims to explore under which institutional and organizational conditions the national e-government reform efforts of EU member states lead to very high availability of e-services. Design/methodology/approach Following e-government literature of information systems and public administration research, this study applies an analytical framework encompassing characteristics of the national politico-administrative system (state structure, government capacity, managerial innovation orientation and civil service system) to understand why a common policy framework does not lead to convergence but great variety in the degree of e-service availability. A comparative case study approach using fuzzy set qualitative comparative analysis (fsQCA) is applied to systematically compare e-service availability in the former 28 EU member states. Findings Three configurations of sufficient conditions are identified: government capacity in conjunction with either bureaucratic human resource practices, centralized state structure or managerial innovation orientation. Three country clusters are derived: effective bureaucrats, effective centralists and effective managers. Originality/value The results demonstrate the importance of administrative effectiveness for the digital transformation. Rather than mimicking best practices, countries are advised to learn from better performing countries that are most similar in terms of institutional and organizational characteristics of the politico-administrative system.
KW  - E-government
KW  - E-services
KW  - Digital government
KW  - Government effectiveness
KW  - Comparative case study
KW  - Qualitative comparative analysis
Y1  - 2021
U6  - https://doi.org/10.1108/IJPSM-12-2020-0325
SN  - 0951-3558
SN  - 1758-6666
VL  - 34
IS  - 7
SP  - 783
EP  - 798
PB  - Emerald
CY  - Bingley
ER  -