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This paper aims to highlight problems and opportunities for introducing digital automation in public administration (PA) and to propose implications for public value creation of robotic process automation (RPA) through the perspective of good bureaucracy as a guiding framework.

This conceptual paper addresses the purpose by applying three normative ideal types: Weber’s ideal type for a bureaucracy, new public management and public value management. This paper synthesizes an analytical framework in conducting case studies of the implementation of RPA systems in municipal administration.

This paper contributes to new insights into public value creation and digital automation. The following four implications are proposed: the deployment of RPA in municipal administration should emphasize that organizing administrative tasks is essentially a political issue; include considerations based on a well-grounded analysis in which policy areas that are suitable for RPA; to pay attention to issues on legal certainty, personal integrity, transparency and opportunities to influence automated decisions; and that the introduction of RPA indicates a need to develop resources concerning learning and knowledge in the municipal administration.

This paper is innovative, as it relates normative, descriptive and prescriptive issues on the developing of digital automation in PA. The conceptual approach is unusual in studies of digitalization in public activities.

This paper aims to identify the factors affecting the implementation of Public-Private Partnerships (PPPs) in the education sector.

Based on Scopus and adopting the protocol of Staples and Niazi (2007), this systematic literature review examined 21 articles on PPPs in the education sector. Content analysis is adopted to identify research gaps and provide information on critical issues in the cases.

The findings have identified the critical success factors of PPPs in the education sector in 12 countries, revealing varying degrees of success and implementation challenges. They reflect the importance of clear objectives, effective communication, and robust partnerships between the public and private sectors to achieve success. These insights contribute to an in-depth understanding of PPP implementation in education, which can guide future projects.

The critical success factors identified in PPPs implementation in education across various countries may provide a comprehensive worldwide perspective for researchers, practitioners and policymakers.

This paper aims to explain the impacts of the ongoing digitization reform in Benin. It demonstrates that a well-conducted reform can reduce corruption, improve performance and bring citizens closer to the administration. It also highlights the elements needed to ensure the success of such a reform.

The impacts of the digitization of services and processes on both administrative structures and accountability mechanisms are described and discussed through the analysis of interviews conducted with government officials and key external stakeholders.

Findings indicate that the implementation of new technologies has created difficulties for public servants and that reaching out to the entire population is still proving challenging. However, the reform has helped prevent abuses and corruption in management, and it has raised hopes of improving the state–citizen relationship in the long run.

This paper adds to the research on digitization, accountability and state–citizen relationships in developing countries. It fills a gap in the literature by directly analyzing the relationship between digitization and public accountability in Benin.

The subject of innovation in public service has been gaining attention in Brazilian scientific practice and production. This paper aims to identify national studies on innovation in public administration and increase the level of knowledge about the subject, as well as to inspire new research and promote advances in theoretical and practical knowledge about innovation in the public sector.

The present study has a descriptive purpose, quantitative nature and was performed through a bibliometric study based on the protocol proposed by Cronin et al. (2008). Documentary data were collected from scientific articles, and quantitative techniques for descriptive statistics were used to analyze the results. Were selected Brazilian scientific journals classified with Qualis equal to or higher than B1, in the area of Public Administration and Business, Accounting and Tourism, in the quadrennium 2013-2016; a total of 164 journals searched.

The results herein indicate a research gap that should be filled by more theoretical studies. Also, they point to the need for multimethod research studies that promote the evaluation of product and process innovation, especially related to the phases of invention and implementation.

Few studies have covered public administration and, especially, innovation reviews; none of these studies focused on innovation in the Brazilian public sector, as proposed by this research; the period of analysis and coverage of journals used as search criteria also differ from other reviews in the area of innovation and public sector.

The need to improve the efficiency and quality of public services has increased the interest in innovation. This study seeks to understand the relationship between the Public Service Motivation (PSM) index and the profile of strategic-level public servants who are considered innovative.

Questionnaires were applied to the group of government managers who registered their projects in an innovation competition. Data were analyzed using t-test, multiple correspondence analysis (MCA) and hierarchical cluster analysis (HCA).

This paper concluded that the PSM level of these innovative public servants is significantly greater than public servants overall. In terms of the profile of these innovative government managers, it was found that the majority were female, with a high level of education and a background in Information Technology.

The discovery that innovative government managers have a significantly higher PSM (p < 0.05) than public servants overall may be relevant, because it confirms a statistical tendency that it would be advantageous for policy-makers to invest in actions that increase public servant PSM since these servants with high PSM are more innovative.

This article has sought to fill a gap in studies that associate the level of PSM with the innovation practices in the public sector, as well as verify the profile of public servants with high levels of motivation in public service (PSM).

The purpose of this paper is to identify the determining factors in the performance of integrated vocational education schools, in addition to management characteristics and specificities.

By means of a descriptive study with a qualitative approach, a case study was conducted in two schools located in the cities of Cotia and São Roque.

The following factors were identified: engagement and commitment of teachers; motivation and focus of teachers and students; team of professionals; commitment and focus of students; family involvement; leadership and climate and selection of students. The following characteristics were observed: participative leadership associated with the use of management tools; pedagogical leadership in partnership with the school community; monitoring of student performance; performance assessment and training of teachers related to career plan; selection of students and actions along the community.

The results reflect the vision of the schools' managers and teachers and not that of the managing institution. There is no intention whatsoever to obtain generalization to other ETECs but rather inferences that could shed light on future studies.

This research ratifies what has already been proven in the literature, showing that there are no isolated factors that interfere with performance, but an interrelationship among them, given the characteristics and peculiarities of each school.

This study is expected to contribute to guiding school managers and teachers in the search for quality education, whether vocational or regular basic education.

This paper analyses the degree of political decentralisation and its relation to the local councils in Tanzania. It explores the institutional and political set-up of the local councils originating from the degree of political decentralisation and how it influences the tension between the bureaucrats and local politicians.

Qualitative approach by a comparative case study is adopted to investigate the phenomenon in two local governments in Tanzania. The data were collected through interviews with 37 senior local government officials and eight focus group discussions with 48 administrators and councillors.

The findings indicate that the two local governments are subjected to a similar political system guided by similar rules and guidelines from the central government bureaucracy for implementing the party manifesto and central government priorities. Thus, the local politicians have little room for negotiation in adopting local agenda to reflect the preferences of the local community. Any attempt to challenge this status quo creates political tensions between bureaucrats and the administrators.

The findings provide invaluable insights to different stakeholders such as political scientists, government officials, and policymakers with interests in research or practice of political decentralization and political-administrative relation.

China’s globalizing Internet describes a situation where China is using the Internet as a tool or medium to transmit its voice on the world stage and enhance its influence over the global Internet governance system and the global digitalization process. Several concerns, however, exist regarding China’s globalizing Internet strategies. This paper aims to respond to these concerns and enhance the understanding of China’s globalizing Internet strategies.

This paper will use content analysis to trace the policy development trajectory of China’s globalizing Internet, including policy vision, policy-making agencies and policy tools.

The Chinese government has issued a considerable number of policies to regulate and promote the development of the Internet since 2014. The key trend that emerged from the analysis of China’s globalizing Internet policy is the cooperation among different agencies. Existing policies have comprehensively used the supply-oriented tools, the environment-oriented tools and the demand-oriented tools; and the last two tools have been used more frequently in recent years.

The analysis results contribute to understanding how China uses digital technology to enhance its influence over the global Internet governance system.

This article discusses the consequences of unethical leadership, particularly, the leader-follower relationship in the delivery of agricultural advisory services in Tanzania. It analyses the means through which ethical leadership framework can be used to address the problem of unethical leadership in this context.

The article uses a comparative case study design to explain the position of ethical leadership in the delivery of agricultural advisory services in two local governments: Morogoro Municipality in Eastern Tanzania, and Hai District in Northern Tanzania.

The research shows that the delivery of agricultural extension services in Tanzania is guided by formal rules, which define the roles and responsibilities of local government officials and field workers. These roles and responsibilities are driven by national-level guidelines written by the Ministry of Agriculture. The guidelines define the key responsibilities of village, Ward and District level Agricultural Extension Officers. In developing the working schedule, agricultural extension workers at the village and ward levels are guided by an annual calendar that defines the seasons of the year and the relevant knowledge required by farmers. Nevertheless, the implementation of these schedules is compromised by a lack of resources and morale of field workers who in turn, cope through charging for the services, which is considered as their prime motives.

The findings can be of interest to national and local government policymakers and officials dealing with the delivery of agricultural advisory services in Tanzania.

Coproduction is both a recurrent way of organizing public services and a maturing academic field. The academic debate has analyzed several facets, but one deserves further analysis: its impact on the cost efficiency of public services. The purpose of this paper is to aim at systematizing the findings on the relationship between coproduction and cost efficiency and at developing insights for future research.

This paper is based on a structured literature review (SLR), following the approach proposed by Massaro, Dumay and Guthrie. The SLR approach differs from traditional narrative reviews since, like other meta-analysis methods, it adopts a replicable and transparent process. At the same time, when compared to most common meta-analysis or systematic review logics, it is better suited to incorporate evidence from case studies and etnographies. This makes the method especially suited to public administration and management studies.

Results shed light on the nature of the academic literature relating coproduction to cost efficiency, on what type of costs are affected and how and on the meaningfulness of productivity measures when public services are co-produced.

In times of fiscal distress for many governments, the paper contributes to research and practice in systematically re-assessing the effects of coproduction on public budgets.