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Many countries today, especially in Europe, provide publicly funded public services in quasi-markets. As these markets commercialize, agencies of various types are providing technologies that support citizens’ choice of services. Citizens’ use of technologies for service provision is studied as e-government under labels of channel management, e-service uptake or adoption. In contrast, by using actor–network theory (ANT), the purpose of this paper is to focus on the marketing devices that are used to enroll citizens to choose technologies in a context with large penetration of quasi-market arrangements.

Based on a Swedish case study, this paper uses qualitative data from 11 occurrences of technologies to support citizens’ choice (“market devices”) in education, healthcare and public pension in an analysis of the means taken (“marketing devices”) to increase their use. The study formulates a tentative typology of these devices.

The marketing devices are intended to attract citizens’ attention to the possibility of choice (e.g. catalogs, postcards and commercials), invite interaction (e.g. various social media platforms), improve the technological support in line with user needs (e.g. user participation in development), increase visibility of technological support (e.g. search optimization) or directly connect citizens to technological support (e.g. via links).

The paper contributes to e-government research through a typology of means taken to increase citizens’ technology use based on selected concepts from ANT, and to a discussion of technologies and humans.

The objective of this research is to study the significance of technology – as a driver as well as a barrier – for e‐customs implementation. E‐customs is seen here as a subset of e‐government because it deals with digital government‐to‐business interaction.

The study applies the syntegration process (Beer, 1994) as a method of knowledge exchange among a heterogeneous group of people involved in e‐customs implementation. The research methodology is therefore a qualitative, explorative and inductive search for drivers and barriers.

The data suggest that technology is seen more as a means rather than an end in relation to e‐customs implementation. Legal, regulatory and policy factors, as well as human and organizational factors are suggested to be of similar importance.

The study demonstrates the strength in applying more interpretative research approaches to less explored domains. It highlights that practitioners perceive certain variables, which are less obvious to the traditional research‐driven models, to be of importance.

The results should be applied with care, bearing in mind that our conclusions are based on a single syntegration process. The robust foundation of the Living Lab as a platform for collaboration (beyond the syntegration workshop) suggests that the insights can provide useful input to practitioners who need to implement an e‐customs solutions. It provides a more balanced view because data are generated from a heterogeneous group of stakeholders involved in e‐customs implementation.

The process of data collection deviates from the more traditional case study where the design of the study guides the data collection.

The purpose of this paper is first to present a case study where standardized case handling processes have been transferred from a manual system to an IT system, and then to demonstrate the implications of implementing an electronic records management system (ERMS) in an environment – the Punjabi province of Pakistan – which is unfamiliar with the features embedded in ERMS.

The methodology is a case study with first hand data observations, meetings, log files and secondary data (reports).

Although ERMS implementation to date has been limited, the ERMS has led to increased efficiency and effectiveness of the government, increased transparency and accountability in decision making, and enhanced delivery of efficient and cost effective public services to citizens. Furthermore, the case indicates that IT implementation challenges are universal rather than dependent on the nature of the country.

Lack of adequate training and design of user interface are key indicators of the limited success of implementation of ERMS in the department under investigation. Power and control are major challenges in ERMS implementation in Pakistani government departments.

This paper investigates ERMS in local government in Pakistan, which is unfamiliar with the features embedded in ERMS.

This paper aims to discuss the cost of e‐participation from the managerial perspective.

The use of digital media to consult and engage citizens and companies in the decision‐making process is a way of improving the design and legitimatization of decisions, as well as potentially increasing the likelihood of successful implementation of policies. This paper discusses if the potential economic benefits from increased or qualitatively improved involvement inherently are long term and have to compete with other activities undertaken by government.

There are great uncertainties regarding the magnitude of the positive effects on governance since there are not only positive, but also negative externalities of e‐participation; thus, there are major challenges in measuring and capitalizing on the e‐participation. Part of the reason for the uncertainty is the lack of explicit awareness of the choice of technology, communication style and institutional approach to implementing e‐participation. Further, there is the need to be aware of the administrative costs in transferring e‐participation practices and techniques.

The perspective on cost of e‐participation is not well explored. The discussion raised emphasizes the urgency of the issue.

The empirical research of e-government at the local level has been the subject of many studies in the last two decades. The evidence collected by those studies constitutes a relevant opportunity toward the development of a theory of local e-government implementation. However, several synthesis efforts are needed before such a theory can be developed. The purpose of this article is to contribute to that endeavor by proposing an empirical model of the determinants of e-government implementation by local governments.

The empirical model results from the systematic revision of 59 primary studies published in scientific journals, between 2002 and 2018. As a starting point, a conceptual map relating concepts such as readiness, diffusion, adoption, implementation and institutionalization is presented.

There is a common set of determinants that explains local e-government implementation in general, and three other sets of determinants that contribute to differentiate each one of three e-government dimensions: e-participation, e-transparency and e-services.

Because it was found that different determinants are associated with different e-government dimensions, future empirical studies should differentiate between those dimensions when studying local government.

This is the first study to attempt a synthesis effort on the determinants of e-government implementation by local governments.