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This article compares inter-organizational (IO) interaction and inter-organizational information systems (IOS) to support IO interaction in public and private sectors. The purpose of the article is to explore and discuss differences and similarities between e-government and e-business focusing IOS and interaction. This is done in order to facilitate learning between the two fields. The point of departure is two case studies performed in private and public sectors.

A comparative study of two cases in two sectors (private and public) is conducted. IO concepts from industrial markets that characterize an IO relationship (continuity, complexity, symmetry, and formality) and concepts that describe dimensions of such relationships (links, bonds, and ties) are used as analytical lenses. The empirical case study data, mainly generated from interviews, have been analyzed in a qualitative, interpretive way, using these central IO concepts from industrial markets (the IMP approach). This approach is in line with a strategy to use theory as a part of an iterative process of data collection and analysis.

The findings in the present study show that there are several similarities concerning interaction in relations between organizations in the two sectors. There are also differences depending on the level of analysis (empirical level vs analytical level). The study shows the need to be explicit regarding organizational value, end-customer or client/citizen value and the type of objects that are exchanged in the interaction. This is presented in the article together with suggested refinements of the analytical framework used for understanding IO interaction. The latter finding is a contribution to the general field of interaction and network studies and also a contribution to the e-government field.

This article is a point of departure to facilitate learning between the public and the private sectors focusing on IO relations and IOS. Learning between the two sectors is needed for researchers in the two areas as well as policy makers and practitioners developing e-government interaction and IOS.

There are few articles addressing learning between the private and the public sector within the e-government area. Not at least when focusing IO issues. There is also a tendency that wheels are reinvented in the sectors and in the e-government research area. An important initiative in this article is to contribute in filling this gap by providing examples of a comparative analysis as well as understanding of how to perform such analyses of IO interaction.

Although researchers have proposed a shift in digital divide studies toward a focus on Internet use and skills, it is still relevant to talk about access as autonomy of use, as some individuals in both developing and developed countries still face barriers and do not have the freedom to choose how to connect to the Internet.

We look at the relationship between autonomy of use and online interaction with government and the relationship between the latter and individuals’ perceptions of the government. Data for this study was collected in 10 cities in Colombia between August 29 and September 17 of 2012 and represented Colombia’s urban adult population.

Results showed that autonomy of use had a positive relationship with online interaction with government. This online activity was positively related with individuals’ trust in government and negatively with perceptions of government corruption.

Findings suggest that certain uses have a higher probability of emerging as individuals’ environments become saturated with a broad set of connectivity options. Redundant efforts to increase connectivity can be valuable in assisting internet users. Public policy projects focused only on one access alternative might not be as beneficial as those that facilitate more varied types of Internet use. Additionally, the results could be interpreted to mean that that those high-trust individuals who perceive the government as less corrupt, tend to interact online more with it because they are part of an elite which has benefited from the government in some way.

The purpose of this paper is to acknowledge the potential complexities in conventional notions of e-government service environments, which have earlier been conceptualized as a two party interaction system where the government is the service provider and other entities such as businesses, citizens, etc. are the service recipients. In this regard, the authors extend their attention to a core service context and identify the existence of “credence-based” service setting that may involve more than two parties such as government, citizens, and third-party institutions (TPIs).

An in-depth literature review is performed to build a conceptual foundation for the proposed service environment. A case of an Indian context is exemplified to understand the credence-based service setting and advocate the suitability of broader dimensions of service quality assessment, and propose a preliminary model of service quality assessment in the given context. The case study approach is adopted for gathering and analyzing the data. The data are collected from government web sites, semi-structured interviews with government officials, and students.

The paper finds that the existence of TPIs changes the nature of normal government to citizen (G2C) service interaction. Service quality conceptualization for this particular kind of e-government setting is bi-dimensional in nature which involves two separate but interdependent constructs quality of information, and quality of service Interaction that collectively contributes to service quality and empowerment of the recipients.

The present work attempts to differentiate the service context of credence-based e-government setting with the traditional conceptualizations of e-government service environments.

This paper aims to examine citizen interaction with e‐government using three e‐participation models. The two major research questions of this paper are: what is the current level of e‐participation in the USA?; and what factors explain why citizens participate in online government?

Survey evidence of citizens in the USA and their use of e‐participation is examined using quantitative methods.

Citizens were most likely to use e‐participation for management activities. Citizens were much less likely to use the internet for more advanced consultative and participatory activities. Using regression analysis, factors such as demand by citizens for e‐government, the digital divide, and political factors influenced the level of e‐participation.

The results of this study imply that governments should do more to stimulate demand for e‐government, address issues of the digital divide, and provide for more open and transparent government. A limitation of this study is its focus on e‐participation through a survey instrument, which does not consider all possible forms of e‐participation.

For e‐participation to blossom, governments should do more to promote citizens' demand for e‐government, bridge the digital divide, and promote more open and transparent government.

Existing research on e‐participation has focused on theory building and case studies; this paper provides empirical evidence, through a survey, of the level of e‐participation and factors that promote e‐participation.

This study aims to investigate the influence of collaborative stakeholder relationships (buyers, media, government and top management) on apparel suppliers’ corporate social responsibility (CSR) in Bangladesh.

“Face to face” and “drop off and collect” survey administration techniques were used to collect a total of 371 questionnaires from middle-level managerial executives of apparel suppliers in Bangladesh. The data were analysed using partial least square structural equation modelling combined with resampling and bootstrapping techniques.

The findings suggest that buyers, the media and top management have a direct and significant influence on the stakeholder network and, in turn, positively impact the CSR of apparel suppliers in Bangladesh. The media and buyer firms work together to provide a combined and salient influence on the top management of supplier firms in Bangladesh to shape CSR practices.

The extent of stakeholder influence varies according to the strength of the network and the mediation within interconnected relationships. Suppliers’ top management could use the study’s findings to improve CSR by focussing on the strongest path of interconnected stakeholders. The Bangladesh Government could take policy initiatives to address CSR-related concerns raised by interconnected stakeholders.

This study contributes to stakeholder and CSR literature by providing valuable insights into the empirical justification of interactive stakeholder influences on suppliers’ CSR.

Email communication is indispensable for US state agencies to respond to citizen requests and engage with constituents, contributing to building trust in local governments. While prior studies examine the responsiveness of elected officials, the quality of virtual interactions between government organizations and citizens is often overlooked. This study aims to investigate how US government agencies capitalize on the potential of online interactions with constituents to manage generic queries and introduce the response engagement index (REI) consisting of response time, reactive transparency and message interactivity to evaluate levels of communicative engagement.

The authors conducted a field experiment encompassing emailing a request to 547 state agencies based in the five largest states and one small state. A total of 377 organizational responses were manually analyzed to reveal the usages of six communicative engagement strategies.

The results show the potential of online communication is underutilized as the average score of response engagement remains low. Human responses are less engaging than auto-reply messages and require a one-day waiting period, if not longer. Response types and gender of government communicators significantly differ in response time and engagement strategies. The findings identify divergent patterns of response engagement and provide practical implications for facilitating citizen engagement.

This research fills a critical gap by investigating the quality of online interactions between US government agencies and citizens. The authors develop a theory-grounded tool of response engagement to identify three features: response speed, reactive transparency and interactivity. The findings can improve the quality of email communication in state agencies, enhancing governance quality. The REI proposed here addresses what Pfau (2008) deemed problematic for communication scholarship: research is sparse on “functional issues” that examine the communication process. Pfau argued for research that provides knowledge of interest across disciplines so as to “cross-fertilize” ideas between political communication and public relations; this study sought to bridge that gap with a theoretical and practical tool for building public trust in governments.

To support the evaluation of transparent and responsive governments, reliable and valid measurements are needed. The proposed REI provides practitioners with a theory-grounded tool to identify areas of engagement quality in government responses. The findings can be used to improve the quality of email communication in state agencies, enhancing governance quality.

Citizens seek reciprocal dialogue through prompt, open and interactive communication. US state agencies should leverage the engagement features for increasing citizen trust – response time, reactive transparency and interactivity – when responding to public inquiries. Ultimately, trust in government agencies' interests in serving stakeholders cannot be strengthened without prompt and engaging responses to meet the public's needs.

This field experiment was one of the first to focus on US state agencies' responses to information requests. It introduces a new REI to assess communicative engagement in a government/citizen exchange.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate whether formal State Business Relations (F-SBR) lead to economic growth and which institutional variables are responsible for their success in achieving this.

Following a theoretical analysis, several hypotheses are presented, and a number of different regression models are being used to test the hypotheses.

The paper finds that F-SBR with high government representation and business participation are likely to increase investment flows as well as help overcome some burdensome institutional settings. This could be done thanks to building trust, enhancing information exchange and better policy formulation. Despite of its suggested trust-building capacity, F-SBR seem to fail to function in cultures where trust in governments is low, since trust is a key issue for cooperation as that expected in F-SBR. On the other hand, collective but also non-hierarchical cultures that foster cooperation seem to help in the success of F-SBR. Accountability to the public and openness to various societal groups as well as good regulatory quality would help F-SBR in leading to better economic outcomes.

This paper, thus, suggests supporting the establishment of F-SBR with high official representation and business participation because of their positive economic value. It also suggests that voice and accountability and regulatory quality are important institutions for the realization of better economic outcomes from F-SBR.

The theoretical and empirical approaches used in this paper are what make it a novel endeavor in this field. Much of the suggested hypotheses were hardly discussed thoroughly elsewhere in the literature on F-SBR. Moreover, the proxy used for F-SBR, constructed by the interaction term of government official representation and the level of business representation, made it possible to conduct empirical testing on a global level, something barely done in works on F-SBR experiences worldwide. The obtained results supported some of the arguments uttered in the literature while raising questions on others, opening the field for future research on the matter.

This paper focuses on the relationship between spontaneous business groups, such as the Taiwanese Businessmen Association (TBA), and the Chinese government.

In analysing the relationship between the TBAs and the Chinese government, this paper focuses on three cities, Tianjin, Kunshan and Dongguan. Furthermore it observes Taiwanese investment in mainland China from 1987 to 2004, in three sub‐periods: 1987‐1993, 1994‐1999, 2000‐2004. Statism (e.g. rational choice) appears to be a valid theoretical framework.

It was found that the Chinese government's changing interaction with Taiwanese businesses always suited their best interests at the time, which proves that the Chinese government applied rational module in interacting with Taiwanese businesses.

Rational choice is not a comprehensive approach in political science, but it is the most suitable approach to analyse the interaction between the Chinese government and Taiwanese businesses.

The first TBA was established in Beijing in 1990; nowadays there are over 100 TBAs in mainland China. It has been argued that TBAs can be seen as the emergence of a sort of civil society in mainland China; to others, they merely reflect the strong will of the Chinese government to attract foreign investment.

This paper demonstrates that Taiwanese businesses is a security asset for the Chinese government in the cross‐Strait relationship.

The purpose of this study was to examine the interaction between citizens’ perception of justice and their trust in the government agency that provides e-services, in particular, those e-services with users who are particularly sensitive towards their interaction and exchanges with the government.

Analysis of 102 surveys completed by users of e-BR1M was conducted. Partial least squares regression, a form of structural equation modelling, was used for the data analysis.

This study found that distributive justice and procedural justice positively influence trust in government. Trust in government and convenience were also found to significantly influence the adoption of e-BR1M.

Understanding the interaction between perceptions of justice (procedural and distributive justice) and trust can contribute to the willingness to adopt e-government services by a particular group of users who are particularly sensitive towards interactions with the government.

Findings from this study can help policymakers improve the way in which they interact with citizens so that the citizens’ perceptions of procedural and distributive justice are improved. This, in turn, will improve trust in government and will lead to an improved willingness of citizens to use e-government services.

This study examined the interaction between citizens’ perceptions of trust and justice in an e-government service, which users are particularly sensitive towards in their interactions with the government.