Characterization of e-Government adoption in Europe

PLoS One. 2020 Apr 17;15(4):e0231585. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0231585. eCollection 2020.

Abstract

The digital divide in Europe has not yet been bridged and thus more contributions towards understanding the factors affecting the different dimensions involved are required. This research offers some insights into the topic by analyzing the e-Government adoption or practical use of e-Government across Europe (26 EU countries). Based on the data provided by the statistical office of the European Union (Eurostat), we defined two indexes, the E-Government Use Index (EGUI) and an extreme version of it taking into account only null or complete use (EGUI+), and characterized the use/non use of e-Government tools using supervised learning procedures in a selection of countries with different e-Government adoption levels. These procedures achieved an average accuracy of 73% and determined the main factors related to the practical use of e-Government in each of the countries, e.g. the frequency of buying goods over the Internet or the education level. In addition, we compared the proposed indexes to other indexes measuring the level of e-readiness of a country such as the E-Government Development Index (EGDI) its Online Service Index (OSI) component, the Networked Readiness Index (NRI) and its Government usage component (GU). The ranking comparison found that EGUI+ is correlated with the four indexes mentioned at 0.05 significance level, as the majority of countries were ranked in similar positions. The outcomes contribute to gaining understanding about the factors influencing the use of e-Government in Europe and the different adoption levels.

Publication types

  • Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

  • Computer Communication Networks*
  • European Union / organization & administration*
  • Government*
  • Information Technology*

Grants and funding

The work has been funded by: (1) - (A. Yera) University of the Basque Country UPV/EHU (www.ehu.eus) (PIF15/143 grant), (2) (A. Yera, O. Arbelaitz, J. Muguerza) Department of Education, Universities and Research of the Basque Government (https://www.euskadi.eus/gobierno-vasco/universidades-investigacion/), (ADIAN group, grant IT980-16) (3) (O. Arbelaitz, J. Muguerza) Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness of the Spanish Government (http://www.mineco.gob.es/portal/site/mineco/?lang_choosen=en), co-founded by the ERDF (European Regional Development Fund) (Physcomp, TIN2017-85409-P) The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.