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The diffusion of social media among public administrations has significantly grown in the last years. This phenomenon has created a field of research that seeks to understand the adoption and impact of social media in the public sector. The purpose of this paper is to identify the factors that make social media successful in Spanish local governments.

The paper is based on an adapted version of a neo-institutional model: Enacting Electronic Government Success (EEGS). The data have been collected through three main sources: primary data from a questionnaire designed and conducted by the authors, secondary data of statistical sources, and tertiary data collected through Klout Score.

The results from a survey and statistical analysis provide preliminary validation of the model and show a direct relationship between organizational, institutional, and environmental factors with the successful use of social media in local public administrations. The data analysis shows that ten variables jointly explain 54.6 percent (adjusted R²=0.546) of the variability observed in the dependent variable.

First, the analysis model used represents a limited sample size to carry out a complex quantitative analysis. Second, the use of Klout Scores can offer some bias. Finally, certain variables complicate the comparative potential of the study.

This study provides original primary data and contributes to the growing field of study related to social technologies in public administrations. This research also confirms in an exploratory way the validity of the EEGS model.

Local governments face increasingly complex challenges related to their internal operations as well as the provision of public services. However, research on how they embrace evidence-based approaches such as data analytics practices, which could help them face some of those challenges, is still scarce. This study aims to contribute to existing knowledge by examining the data analytics practices in Kansas City, Missouri (KCMO), a city that has become prominent for engaging in data analytics use through the Bloomberg’s What Works Cities (WWC) initiative with the purpose of improving efficiency and enhancing response to local constituents.

This research conducted semistructured interviews with public servants who had data analytics experience at KCMO. Analysis looked for common and emerging patterns across transcripts. A conceptual framework based on related studies is built and used as the theoretical basis to assess the evidence observed in the case.

Findings suggest that data analytics practices are sponsored by organizational leadership, but fostered by data stewards who engage other stakeholders and incorporate data resources in their analytical initiatives as they tackle important questions. Those stewards collaborate to nurture inclusive networks that leverage knowledge from previous experiences to orient current analytical endeavors.

This study explores the experience of a single city, so it does not account for successes and failures of similar local governments that were also part of Bloomberg's WWC. Furthermore, the fact that selected interviewees were involved in data analytics at least to some extent increases the likelihood that their experience with data analytics is relatively more positive than the experience of other local government employees.

Results suggest that data analytics benefits from leadership support and steering initiatives such as WWC, but also from leveraging stakeholder knowledge through collaborative networks to have access to data and organizational resources. The interplay of data analytics sponsored activities and organizational knowledge could be used as means of assessing local governments’ existing data analytics capability.

This study suggests that data analytics practices in local governments that are implementing a smart city agenda are knowledge-driven and developed incrementally through inclusive networks that leverage stakeholder knowledge and data resources. The incrementality identified suggests that data analytics initiatives should not be considered a “blank slate” practice, but an endeavor driven and sustained by data stewards who leverage stakeholder knowledge and data resources through collaborative networks.

The purpose of this paper is to introduce the special issue about generation of public value through smart technologies and strategies. The key argument is that smart technologies have the potential to foster co-creation of public services and the generation of public value in management processes, based on the collaborative, social and horizontal nature of these smart technologies. Understanding these processes from a public management perspective is the purpose of this paper and the rest of the special issue.

The approach to this paper is a theoretical and conceptual review, whereas practical implications both for scholars and practitioners arise from the review of the literature and the conceptual approximation to the notion of smartness in technologies and government. This approach is rooted in the potential of the latest smart technologies and strategies to transform public administrations and to better understand and cope societal problems.

The conceptual and theoretical perspective of this paper offers ideas for future developments. The content of this paper shows that new smart technologies and strategies will shape, and will be shaped by, the future of public organizations and management. This paper illustrates the process of change in public value generation over time, as a result of different public management paradigms (from traditional public administration to new public management), but also different types of technologies (from mainframes to websites and social media and beyond). The empirical evidence of the articles of this special issue supports this conclusion; that open and collaborative innovation processes developed under this emergent technological wave could become encouraging transformative practices in the public sector.

The theoretical and conceptual nature of this paper needs further empirical research to validate some of the discussed assumptions and ideas.

Although this paper is oriented to present the main contents of the special issue, it also provides an original approach to the theme of public value generation using smart technologies and strategies in public sector management.

This paper aims to argue that the structure of the response to the World Trade Center (WTC) crisis can be characterized as an inter-organizational network and the majority of the activities can be identified as network management.

Using a mixed-method research strategy encompassing in-depth interviews and a sociometric survey, the authors characterize the response as an inter-organizational network and describe significant factors that facilitate the effective functioning and management of an emergency response.

The results provide empirical support for the claim that the management of the WTC response was very different from normal government operations in many respects. However, it was also found that complete detachment of the network-form of organization from bureaucratic hierarchy is not always possible in an emergency response, particularly in terms of leadership and the availability of resources.

The authors argue that bureaucratic leadership exists in political layers and is sometimes needed to provide social value to the general public and promote their engagement. Finally, the authors found evidence that the effectiveness of networks in an emergency response is influenced by certain enabling conditions, such as the severity of events, and suggest some implications for government operations.

The digital divide refers to the gap among citizens of a country or across borders due to the lack of ease of access to digital means for some and the difficulty for others. The possession of electronic gadgets, smooth internet connectivity, and other forms of digital communication can have a wide gap in availability among countries. This gap is mostly influenced by factors that are of infrastructural, political, cultural, demographical, generational, and socioeconomic nature. On account of developed and developing countries, the gap is disseminated and thoroughly complex. Although the developed nations around the globe proved to have narrowed digital divide as a major source of development and advancement in respective countries, it is quite challenging for emerging economies to adhere to the same processes for development. For an emerging economy, the prudent cost-benefit analysis carried out by the government can have varying effects on undertaking projects related to minimizing the digital divide. Nevertheless, the importance of narrowing the gap of the digital divide is unparalleled, and governments of emerging economies are realizing the benefits of it and investing their resources accordingly. Furthermore, information technology can be a catalyst in facilitating processes that save a lot of costs, bring holistic quality improvements, and implement effective and efficient government policies that lead to digitalization and sustainable consumption of resources. Consequently, governments are getting actively involved in the digitalization of their respective countries to turn their smart cities into more intelligent ones. Even so, it is important to understand that taking one policy to address all citizens is not realistic. Hence, understanding the foundational knowledge of the citizens, the demand of the population under various sectors, framing well-rounded policies with alternatives, and effectively and efficiently implementing them are extremely crucial.

This study aims to propose a model to examine the relationships between e-government development, cybersecurity commitment, business usage and economic prosperity of the country.

Structural equation modeling was used to analyze the country-level variables to explain the second-order impact of e-government development through the mediating role of cybersecurity commitment.

Findings suggest that e-government development demonstrated a stronger association with cybersecurity commitment and business usage. There is preliminary evidence that the improvement of cybersecurity measures initiated by e-government development will drive business usage and improve macroeconomic conditions.

This paper has constructed a theoretical model and validated it using publicly available archival data. Further, this study hypothesizes and demonstrates empirically the direct, as well as indirect relationships between e-government development, cybersecurity commitment, business usage and economic prosperity. To summarize, the study unearths the role of a nation’s cybersecurity commitment and how it is associated with other macro parameters in a country.

As an initial step, the present study highlights the pivotal role of e-government and its positive influence on cybersecurity commitment at the country level. Further, this study also recognizes the role of cyber commitment to boost information communication and technology usage in business, the use of e-government services for the profitability of the business and effectively influence economic prosperity.

A study conducted by UN Habitat (2020) revealed that financing of investment in African growing cities has become an impediment amid the COVID-19 pandemic. Close to USD 93 billion is needed to finance urban development in Africa. The prevalence of COVID-19 pandemic impacted negatively on the independence of African cities to raise revenue or incur long-term debt to finance their development. Several local governments in African cities are not positioned enough to ensure quality standards of living for their people. This is because many local authorities in African cities cannot intervene in various emergencies or crises which pose a danger to people given the COVID-19 pandemic era where strategic government interventions are essential to save the lives of the people. Burdened by the need to respond to COVID-19, many African governments have diverted their attention from the smart city ideology which demands stable financial revenues and redirected their efforts towards mitigating the scourge of the pandemic. Drawing from this background, therefore this chapter reports on the three selected African cities (Johannesburg, Lagos and Accra) because of their experiences regarding COVID-19, and their responses to the pandemic towards achieving a smart city in Africa. The chapter is guided by the following specific objectives: To examine the unintended consequences of COVID-19 on the achievement of Smart Cities in three African Cities; to assess the opportunities and challenges of achieving smart cities amid COVID 19 in three African Cities; and to determine how rapid urbanisation affects the achievement of Smart Cities amid COVID-19 in three African Cities. Qualitative thematic analysis was used to analyse data acquired from secondary sources.

This chapter introduces the role that libraries play in promoting and fostering human rights and social justice within the communities they serve. In describing this role, it highlights the different ways in which information intersects with human rights and social justice.

This chapter offers a brief review of the existing body of literature related to human rights and social justice in the field of library and information science (LIS). After articulating the need for this edited volume, we introduce the four sections in this book: Conceptualizing Libraries as Institutions of Human Rights and Social Justice; Library Services to Marginalized Populations; Human Rights and Social Justice Issues in LIS Professions; and Human Rights and Social Justice Issues in LIS Education.

The social roles and responsibilities of libraries have expanded greatly in recent years. These roles and responsibilities, however, are not often framed within the discourse of human rights or social justice. Together, the chapters in this book—written by researchers, educators, and professionals—paint a comprehensive picture of the broad range of roles and contributions of libraries in human rights and social justice.

This chapter introduces a book that explores the current efforts of libraries to meet a wide range of community needs (including education, employment, social services, civic participation, and digital inclusion) through the lenses of human rights and social justice.

The purpose of this paper is to identify key considerations influencing the adoption and use of e-government services by providing insights into users’ views of their experience of an e-government service in a developing country, the website of the Nigeria Immigration Service (NIS).

An online questionnaire-based survey was conducted to capture perceptions of the user experience with the NIS website. Descriptive statistics for each of the factors that contribute to the user experience are reported and discussed, with reference to open comments and previous literature. These factors are security and support, trust, ease of use, website quality, content and information, perceived benefits, convenience and perceived barriers.

There is strong evidence of concern in relation to the security of financial transactions, the use of personal data and trustworthiness, which is aggravated by inadequate user support. There is a lack of consensus regarding ease of use, website quality and content and information. In terms of barriers and benefits, there was a general agreement that the website offered greater convenience than alternative channels, but some concerns were identified regarding the reliability of technology, and, for users in Nigeria, the reliability of the electricity supply.

This paper adds to the very sparse literature on e-government in Nigeria, as well as extending consideration of the public value approach to e-government in developing countries.