Purpose
The project objective is to critically analyse – from the perspectives of citizens and public sector organisations – what public services are suitable for digital communication channels.
Project description
The benefits of digitalising public services can only be met if citizens adopt digital services while at the same time stop using expensive traditional channels. Still, many keep using traditional channels.
Studies on channel choice and IT adoption have created knowledge on what factors influence citizens’ channel behaviour. However, they have not ‘un-black-boxed’ the digital services themselves nor the interplay between citizens’ perceptions of public services and their channel choices as well as the fit with public organisations' multi-channel management strategies. In addition, the technological optimism of digital government may have caused us to overlook the important question whether all public services are suitable for digitalisation.
The project objective is therefore to critically analyse – from the perspectives of citizens and public sector organisations – what public services are suitable for digital communication channels. Our project will take place in collaboration with public welfare organisations Norway, Denmark and Sweden.
First, we identify the public services that citizens use the most and the least on digital and traditional communication channels and the services that generate the most and the least effort for public organisations. This sample of services will be the basis for the further analyses. In collaboration with citizens and policy makers, we identify characteristics that are important for (a) citizens’ and (b) public organisations’ perceptions of a public service.
Subsequently, we use this set of characteristics to analyse how different citizens perceive the selected sample of public services, and how their perception of these services relates to their channel choices as well as to public organisations’ multi-channel management strategies.
Based on these insights, we identify what services as perceived by citizens and public organisations are suitable for digital communication channels.