An Exploratory Framework for Future E-Government Research Investments

After more than a decade of e-government research, little work has been done to envision the longer term future of government and society and the unanswered questions associated with such a vision. This paper reports the results of a survey of thirteen future-oriented research themes generated by an international research partnership. The survey generated responses from 383 experts in 54 countries. It revealed strong consensus on the overall importance of future e-government research, as well as a small number of differences among regions and stakeholder groups regarding the relative importance of individual themes. The study also produced a four-factor framework for organizing and classifying e-government research that comprises relevance, confidence, interoperability, and innovation as interacting elements of any future vision of e-government.