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Decentralization has been a continual focus of attention of both scholars and practitioners for more than half a century. Even though there is a general agreement on what decentralization is, there is no consensus about how it should be measured. This article builds on the existing body of literature that specifies three major dimensions of decentralization: political, administrative, and economic. The article offers a measurement model that unifies these dimensions in a meaningful manner that allows for comparison across countries. The proposed model is then empirically tested using confirmatory factor analysis of a data set of 37 countries over the period 2000-2009. This factor analysis reveals that there are, in fact, only two dimensions of the decentralization process. The newly developed modelʼs index illustrates that the conceptually challenging processes of decentralization can be accurately measured and analyzed. The index can be used for hypothesis testing of the causality role of decentralization.

Addresses the standardization of the measurements and the labels for concepts commonly used in the study of work organizations. As a reference handbook and research tool, seeks to improve measurement in the study of work organizations and to facilitate the teaching of introductory courses in this subject. Focuses solely on work organizations, that is, social systems in which members work for money. Defines measurement and distinguishes four levels: nominal, ordinal, interval and ratio. Selects specific measures on the basis of quality, diversity, simplicity and availability and evaluates each measure for its validity and reliability. Employs a set of 38 concepts ‐ ranging from “absenteeism” to “turnover” as the handbook’s frame of reference. Concludes by reviewing organizational measurement over the past 30 years and recommending future measurement reseach.

The Bureau of Economics in the Federal Trade Commission has a three-part role in the Agency and the strength of its functions changed over time depending on the preferences and ideology of the FTC’s leaders, developments in the field of economics, and the tenor of the times. The over-riding current role is to provide well considered, unbiased economic advice regarding antitrust and consumer protection law enforcement cases to the legal staff and the Commission. The second role, which long ago was primary, is to provide reports on investigations of various industries to the public and public officials. This role was more recently called research or “policy R&D”. A third role is to advocate for competition and markets both domestically and internationally. As a practical matter, the provision of economic advice to the FTC and to the legal staff has required that the economists wear “two hats,” helping the legal staff investigate cases and provide evidence to support law enforcement cases while also providing advice to the legal bureaus and to the Commission on which cases to pursue (thus providing “a second set of eyes” to evaluate cases). There is sometimes a tension in those functions because building a case is not the same as evaluating a case. Economists and the Bureau of Economics have provided such services to the FTC for over 100 years proving that a sub-organization can survive while playing roles that sometimes conflict. Such a life is not, however, always easy or fun.

The purpose of this paper is to fill the research gap in online information and service adoption by small public organizations. According to the US Census, small municipalities with populations of 5,000 or less constitute 76 percent of all municipalities. Moreover, although these governments can benefit most from e-government adoption, their e-government activities are rarely studied.

The primary data collection is a state-wide survey of small municipalities along with collecting data on websites and other government documents. The data analysis utilized logistic regression for adoption decisions.

The findings suggest a distinct set of factors influencing e-government adoption by small municipalities as opposed to large ones. Moreover, management support for open access to government is critical for both e-government information and transaction services while transaction services are also driven by administrative capacity and citizen demand.

This study is original in several ways. First, it is comprehensive in incorporating capacity and network factors along with motivation for management support. Second, it focuses on small municipalities that are important but less studied. At last, it provides a rich understanding of the distinction between information and transaction e-government services.

The purpose of this paper is to analyze the promising potential of open data in Kazakhstan to boost public sector innovations and trace the emergence of the related civic engagement initiatives in order to understand how it affects the democratization of political communication processes in a typical developing country.

This is a case study research which begins with a brief history of the official open data project and then investigates various political and socioeconomic drivers, corresponding regulatory acts, the leading role of the key stakeholders and policy entrepreneurs in the diffusion of the open data movement as well as the main challenges associated with the advance of the open government concept in Kazakhstan, while various independent open data-driven projects provide a rich empirical basis for the analysis.

Open data provides new opportunities to promote civic engagement and e-participation but does not affect the fundamentals of the political system nor advances democratic institutions in a typical developing country. The traditional directives could paradoxically be effective in advancing open data even in a less collaborative political culture. The unitary administrative context is conducive for the development of the ICT-driven public sector initiatives as a single platform. The existence of independent developers is crucial in promoting various open data-driven projects and sharing related expertise. The open data movement creates a favorable atmosphere for the participation of the non-governmental sector in the sphere.

This case study is primarily focused on the analysis of the open data movement at the national level of government, taking into account the unitary structure of the public administration system existing in Kazakhstan, which apparently has a crucial fundamental effect on the realization of any e-government system in this country. In this respect, the main limitation of the research is that the possible existence of various open data-driven projects at the local levels that hypothetically may have a different set of political and socioeconomic drivers and challenges was excluded from the final equation, which provides a new window for the future research in the area.

The results of the research could be used by e-government practitioners and policymakers in evaluating and improving the operation of the open data-driven projects in many developing countries.

The author of the paper tried to develop a universal framework of the case study research that could be used in investigating the open data phenomenon not only in Kazakhstan but also in the context of other developing and transitional countries, especially in analyzing the apparitional emergence of the unique networking activities among the key stakeholders of the open data movement, i.e. policymakers, NGOs, businesses, developers, mass media and citizens. In addition, the results of the analysis could be used in testing the political and socioeconomic implications of the highly centralized e-government approach in the realization of the open data concept in a number of other typical unitary states.

In scientific works, the open data phenomenon is usually analyzed in the context of the most developed and democratic countries of the world with a vast majority of case studies being focused only on North America and Europe, forgetting that it is a global trend. In contrast to the traditional trends in the academic literature, the author of the paper studies the realization of the concept in an unusual context, resorting to the case study of a typical emerging and post-totalitarian nation such as Kazakhstan and focusing on the analysis of the key drivers and challenges in the diffusion of the open data concept in an attempt to answer the ultimate question: whether it is really harnessed by the members of civil society to promote civic engagement and e-participation.

This paper aims to clarify the added value to governments when adopting an Administrative Simplification Strategy (ASS) to reduce administrative burdens, and its impact on both citizens and investors satisfaction. The paper highlights the difference between the traditional and strategic concepts of simplifying administrative procedures, Moreover, the paper discusses the most important steps and tools for the implementation of ASS. The paper, also, sheds light on the efforts of the Egyptian Government to simplify administrative procedures and adopt ASS.

This paper adopts the descriptive analytical approach to describe and analyses the basic features of the subject data from different resources includes journal articles, published papers and books, to conclude a theoretical framework of ASS. (concepts, Implementation steps, Tools, Objectives, operations and content). For the Egyptian case, the researchers uses historical perspective to analyze the efforts of the Egyptian government to simplify administrative procedures in the last decades and the content of the available ministerial decisions, presidential decrees, for example The last ministerial decisions concerning the one-stop supreme committee, were chosen as evidence of the government's interest in this matter and the analysis of the tasks entrusted to the committee to do, The decision of transfer the dependency of the ERRADA was also chosen and analyzed to indicate the extent of the government's interest in it and to what extent there is an enhancement of its role .The authors also analyzed some recent conferences and seminars and compared the administrative reform efforts with the theoretical framework of the ASS to clarify the dimensions related to ASS in Egypt.

On the theoretical level, the ASS is an umbrella term that includes various simplification projects at all the levels of governmental units. ASS leads to the improvement of governmental services provided to both citizens and investors. It is a defensive exploratory strategy that involves multiple goals and processes and requires political support, institutional framework and the comprehensive review of all related legislations, to ensure the successful implementation. Studying the Egyptian case, it is noted that the Egyptian government has not directly adopted an ASS. Yet, it has approved some stages within the framework of the adapted administrative reform plans.

This paper represents a framework for administrative simplification as an integrated strategy at the macro level. The strategy focuses on the overall view of the government, its integrated goals, innovation and the added value, by providing high-quality services and reducing the administrative burdens, as to improve services provided to society and ease of life, as well as to increase the level of living and citizens’ satisfaction.

As public organizations strive for higher e‐government maturity, information technology (IT) Project Portfolio Management (IT PPM) has become a high priority issue. Assuming control is central in IT PPM, the purpose of this paper is to investigate how a Danish local government conducts control in IT PPM. The authors identify control problems and formulate recommendations to address these.

Adopting principles from Engaged Scholarship, the authors have conducted a case study using a wide variety of data collection methods, including 29 interviews, one workshop, and analyses of documents.

It is found that the local government relies vastly on informal control mechanisms and five control problems are identified: weak accountability processes between the political and administrative level; weak accountability between the director level and the IT executives; IT projects established on the basis of incomplete information about internal resources; lack of operational goals to hold IT projects accountable; and no account of actual IT project costs. The authors propose a model for highlighting how more formal control can be implemented and address the identified control problems.

As a single qualitative case study, the results are limited to one organization and subject.

The paper has implications for IT PPM in Danish local governments and similar organizations in other countries. The paper shows that the lack of formal control mechanisms makes accountability between hierarchical levels difficult, which deprives organizations of the opportunity to pursue and display unambiguous value from their e‐government initiatives.

This paper fulfills an identified need to understand how local governments can improve IT PPM.

The purpose of this paper is to analyze the barriers in public policy faced by the small and medium enterprises (SMEs) in a creative economy at the local level.

This research uses a qualitative case study method, and the informants are selected with a purposive sampling technique. The researchers collected data through in-depth interviews of 15 informants. The informants include local government officials, SME actors and creative economy activists. Data are analyzed using thematic analysis in the qualitative method.

This study shows that the development of SMEs in the creative economy is constrained by the mindset and administrative behavior of the local policymakers who tend to be normative, routine-minded and inflexible. Consequently, the local government’s administrative capacity in the creative economy sector has not demonstrated significant support for efforts to increase the competitiveness of creative economies at the regional level.

Research implications suggest how the findings may be important for the policy and practice of SMEs’ development of a creative economy at the local level. The findings suggest that local government needs to engage with the actors and activists of SMEs in the strategic formulation for the development of a creative economy.

This study extends the theoretical and practical knowledge about policy implementation of SMEs’ development by a local government in the creative economy sector in Indonesia.