Does public or private sector matter? An agenda for IS research in E-government

Abstract

With the increasing investment and deployment of IT in the public sector, the topic of eGovernment is garnering interest among practitioners and researchers. In spite of the increased investment, public organizations are perceived to lag behind the private sector in terms of IT implementation and management. The salience and challenges of IT deployment in the public sector point to a greater need for research in eGovernment. However, this theme has largely been missing in mainstream IS research, with the majority of work originating from public administration scholars. This paper articulates various reasons for the lack of IS research in eGovernment and argues for increased research attention towards this topic. It summarizes the previous IS research and identifies differences between the private and public sectors that implicate work in this area. Directions for future research and opportunities for cross-learning are derived based on the sectoral comparison.