Laura Alcaide Muñoz

Determinants of Financial Transparency in Government

ABSTRACT The search for enhanced transparency and accountability in government organizations has inspired studies to identify the key factors that facilitate greater disclosure of public financial information. With the advantages provided by the meta-analysis technique, applied to a sample of studies, we identify the most significant factors and incentives underlying the decisions adopted by public managers on policy strategies regarding information transparency and public responsibility. Our study shows the variables analyzed to be positively associated with the disclosure of public financial information, but also that this depends on the context in which the research is carried out. The most influential variables were the moderator variables of the administrative culture and of the measurement unit for the variables.ABSTRACT The search for enhanced transparency and accountability in government organizations has inspired studies to identify the key factors that facilitate greater disclosure of public financial information. With the advantages provided by the meta-analysis technique, applied to a sample of studies, we identify the most significant factors and incentives underlying the decisions adopted by public managers on policy strategies regarding information transparency and public responsibility. Our study shows the variables analyzed to be positively associated with the disclosure of public financial information, but also that this depends on the context in which the research is carried out. The most influential variables were the moderator variables of the administrative culture and of the measurement unit for the variables.

Risk Factors and Drivers of Financial Sustainability in Local Government: An Empirical Study

Abstract The current international crisis in public finances has made financial sustainability a key issue for governments. Although the European Union (EU) and other international organisations have recommended governments to monitor demographic and economic variables, few studies have considered the influence of these variables on financial sustainability. This paper seeks to identify and analyse the drivers and risk factors that influence the financial sustainability of local government. The findings identify both risk factors (unemployment and population aged under 16 years) and drivers (budgetary outcome) of financial sustainability, which may constitute a useful basis for decision-taking by managers and policy-makers.

Scientometric Study of the Progress and Development of e-Government Research During the Period 2000–2012

Many countries have implemented changes in public-sector management models, based on the strategic and intensive use of new information and communication technologies. From a critical standpoint, this paper analyzes and characterizes the contributions made by research in the field of e-government, identifying future areas of interest and potentially valuable methodologies. In addition, it compares research efforts focused on developing countries with those concerning developed economies, in order to identify research gaps and possibilities for improvement in the context of e-government research in developing countries. Diverse scientometric approaches are employed in this analysis of papers published by international journals listed in the SSCI index in the fields of Public Administration and of Information Science & Library Science. Our findings reveal the existence of various research gaps and highlight areas that should be addressed in future research, especially in developing countries. Indeed, the research approach to e-government remains immature, focusing on particular cases or dimensions, while little has been done to produce theories or models to clarify and explain the political processes of e-government. In addition, significant differences are found between the impact of scientific output and patterns of scientific production as regards developing and developed countries.Many countries have implemented changes in public-sector management models, based on the strategic and intensive use of new information and communication technologies. From a critical standpoint, this paper analyzes and characterizes the contributions made by research in the field of e-government, identifying future areas of interest and potentially valuable methodologies. In addition, it compares research efforts focused on developing countries with those concerning developed economies, in order to identify research gaps and possibilities for improvement in the context of e-government research in developing countries. Diverse scientometric approaches are employed in this analysis of papers published by international journals listed in the SSCI index in the fields of Public Administration and of Information Science & Library Science. Our findings reveal the existence of various research gaps and highlight areas that should be addressed in future research, especially in developing countries. Indeed, the research approach to e-government remains immature, focusing on particular cases or dimensions, while little has been done to produce theories or models to clarify and explain the political processes of e-government. In addition, significant differences are found between the impact of scientific output and patterns of scientific production as regards developing and developed countries.

New development: The role of accounting in assessing local government sustainability

In order to evaluate financial sustainability, public sector managers are being pressured to provide better financial information and information transparency. This article examines the role of accounting in assessing the sustainability of local governments and analyses of the usefulness of annual income statements in the measurement of ‘inter-period equity’.

Contrasting New Public Management (NPM) Versus Post-NPM Through Financial Performance: A Cross-Sectional Analysis of Spanish Local Governments

Financial reports under New Public Management (NPM) programs can provide an incomplete picture of government finances. Post-NPM reforms could help overcome this weakness through the use of aggregate financial measures. This article focuses on the effects of the agencification process analyzing the differences between individual and aggregate measures of government financial performance in the Spanish local government. In general, the results show there is greater compliance with post-NPM postulates, although this does not mean that NPM and post-NPM management models cannot coexist. The use of aggregate performance measures could help bring about this improvement in controlling public agencies and, therefore, make public sector entities more efficient.

Transparency in Governments: A Meta-Analytic Review of Incentives for Digital Versus Hard-Copy Public Financial Disclosures:

Prior research has indicated that information transparency in governments depends on institutional and environmental factors. Nonetheless, previous studies show heterogeneity in the results, and the academic researchers cannot make consistent conclusions. It makes it difficult to know the behavior of governments regarding their information policies. Therefore, making use of meta-analysis techniques, we integrate the empirical results reported by studies to determine the factors favoring the disclosure of public financial information via two modes of information disclosure—online versus hard-copy format. Several moderating effects—administrative culture, accounting regime, impact of measure used on determining variables, and level of government—have been considered and analyzed for their influence on the degree of correlation between the determinants and the disclosure of public financial information in both modes of information disclosure. Our study does not only show that the variables analyzed are posit...Prior research has indicated that information transparency in governments depends on institutional and environmental factors. Nonetheless, previous studies show heterogeneity in the results, and the academic researchers cannot make consistent conclusions. It makes it difficult to know the behavior of governments regarding their information policies. Therefore, making use of meta-analysis techniques, we integrate the empirical results reported by studies to determine the factors favoring the disclosure of public financial information via two modes of information disclosure—online versus hard-copy format. Several moderating effects—administrative culture, accounting regime, impact of measure used on determining variables, and level of government—have been considered and analyzed for their influence on the degree of correlation between the determinants and the disclosure of public financial information in both modes of information disclosure. Our study does not only show that the variables analyzed are positively associated with the disclosure of public financial information, but also that this depends on the context in which the research is conducted. The administrative style and the level of government are the main moderating effects that influence the results of analyzed studies.

Analysing the scientific evolution of e-Government using a science mapping approach

Abstract This study presents a science mapping approach to analysing the thematic evolution of the e-Government field. We combine different bibliometric tools to analyse the evolution of the cognitive structure of this research topic, allowing us to discover the dynamics over different years and detecting the most prominent, productive, and highest-impact subfields. Science mapping provides a novel perspective to reveal the scientific frontiers and dynamic structure with visualization methods. Findings indicate symptoms of a research field in constant evolution that has not yet reached a stage of maturity, and specially, in the following areas of study: smart cities (provision of public services), e-Participation (political area) and technologies used and citizens acceptance (technological tools).

Experiences of E-Government Development Implementation in Developing Countries: Challenges and Solutions

This book chapter analyses past experiences in the implementation of e-government in developing countries to learn lessons for improving its implementation in the future, which could help to achieve more transparent, participative and democratic societies. To achieve this aim, a systematic review on e-government research has been performed to examine the main limiting factors in e-government implementations. In this sense, we think that a systemic thinking approach is needed to be applied in developing countries to undertake successful e-government implementation. This means acting in three different scopes at the same time: (a) organizational structure and processes; (b) investment in IT infrastructure; and (c) investment in education to make citizens ready to use IT. These findings would help politicians and public managers in developing countries to make efficient decisions when implementing e-government initiatives.

Science Mapping Tools: their application to e-Government field

This study presents an approach to analyze the thematic evolution of e-Government field. We combine different bibliometric tools to analyze the evolution of the cognitive structure of this research topic, allowing us to discover important knowledge related to its themes and thematic areas. Also, we are able to identify thematic areas and show their evolutionary behavior, supported by different visualization tools to understand their evolution, importance and likely future tendencies. These findings are a contribution in e-Government field, detecting the most prominent productive and highest-impact subfields, offering symptoms of field in constant evolution.

Theoretical Support for Social Media Research. A Scientometric Analysis

We seek to analyze the research into the field of social media implementation in public administrations, examining the theories that support the use of social media, the main use of this technology for public administrations and the trends and research innovations in this area in the future. In addition, a comparative study will be performed in order to identify differences of research, research gaps and interest on the different domains of this topic into different contexts. To achieve the aims, the scientometric methodology will be applied to a sample of papers published in journals listed in the fields of Public Administration, Information Sciences and Communication. In this sense, the research about social media has not been the same in all areas. Knowledge gaps and research opportunities are identified from these observations, which reveal changes in the research methods applied, reinforcing the development of a theoretical framework so that the application of social media may efficiently contribute to improving management in the public sector.