Sara Hofmann

Old blunders in new media? How local governments communicate with citizens in online social networks

Social media hold abundant opportunities for service providers to interact with their clients. Whereas social media as sales channels have been studied extensively in the Marketing literature, much less is known about the ways in which public sector organisations capitalize on this potential. The purpose of this study is to explore how local governments utilize online social networks as a means for external communication. In a content analysis approach, we analyse 2,522 postings on the Facebook profiles of three out of the ten largest cities in Germany. The analysis is mainly based on a coding scheme that was derived both from literature as well as from interviews with experts, and complemented with a quantitative analysis of the Facebook profiles of the 25 largest German cities. We find that public administrations hardly make use of the opportunities these new media offer, yet.

Unravelling (E-)Government Channel Selection: A Quantitative Analysis of Individual Customer Preferences in Germany and Australia

The purpose of this study is to identify the impact of individual differences on service channel selection for e-government services. In a comparative survey of citizens in Germany and Australia (n=1205), we investigate the impact of age, gender, and mobility issues on the selection of personal or mobile communication as channels for service consumption. The results suggest that Australians are more likely to want to use new technology-oriented channels as internet or mobile applications while Germans tend to use classical channels as telephone or in person. Moreover, differences with respect to age, gender, and mobility exist. Implications for practice and issues for future research are discussed.

The Influence of Social Context and Targeted Communication on e-Government Service Adoption

The electronic ID card eID was introduced in Germany in 2010. Besides the traditional way of authentication, it offers the possibility to activate a function for online authentication. However, more than two thirds of the Germans do not make use of this function. Despite the advantages that the eID offers, the lacking adoption is said to be traced back to lacking information and only few application cases. In our study, we propose online application as a use case for the eID in a university. In a quantitative survey with 1,632 students, we analyse the factors influencing a possible adoption of the eID by students. For this purpose, we extend the basic TAM by the variables perceived risk, social context, experiences, communication and demographics. Our analysis reveals that especially the social context and targeted communication influence the behavioural intention to use and can extremely shape the attitude towards using the service.

A LONGITUDINAL STUDY OF LOCAL E-GOVERNMENT DEVELOPMENT: THE POLICY MAKER PERSPECTIVE

Developments in information and communication technologies have been an enabler of enhanced, citizen focused services by governments around the world. Electronic Government, or E-Government, is widely regarded as a disruptor of traditional e-government service provision through greater citizen access, enhanced democracy, improved information quality, and a range of governmental efficiencies. Local government has been a key e-government focus for many nations due to the wide and varied interactions these governmental agencies have with citizens. A gap in the literature exists that monitors the development of local e-government, especially from the policy maker perspective, of This study presents the findings of a longitudinal study exploring the development of local e-government in New Zealand – from the policy makers’ perspective. All local and regional authorities in New Zealand were surveyed in 2000, 2004, and 2012 with the goal of understanding the key considerations associated with the development of e-government strategies and subsequent implementation of associated infrastructure. While local e-government development has been more incremental than transformational, there has been a trend towards greater consideration of citizen-focused issues including the likes of Consumer Confidence, Trust, Accessibility, The Digital Divide, Indigenous Peoples, Security, and Privacy. This offers a degree of reassurance that local authorities remain, and are indeed increasingly, focused on the provision of enhanced services to the communities they serve.

Grand Societal Challenges in Information Systems Research and Education

This book examines how information systems research and education can play a major role in contributing to solutions to the Societal Grand Challenges formulated in The Millennium Project (millenium-project.org). Individual chapters focus on specific challenges, review existing approaches and contributionstowards solutions in information systems research and outline a research agenda for these challenges. The topics considered in this volume range from climate change, population growth, global ICT availability, breakthroughs in science and technology and energy demand to ethical decision-making, policymaking, gender status and transnational crime prevention. It is the first book to present ideas on how the Information Systems discipline can contribute to the solution on this wide spectrum of grand societal challenges.