The project’s aim is to be operationalized based on five complementary objectives:

1. to establish the theoretical framework for the DTM’s development, encompassing dimensions of administrative and service design, tailored to PA actors’ needs,
2. to conduct a tailored survey, including the assessment of potentially relevant DTM elements,
3. to conduct a tailored survey, including the assessment of potentially relevant DTM elements,
4. to ensure the in-depth validation and optimization of the statistically indicated DTM by means of mixed methods triangulation,
5. to equip the DTM with an original software tool providing different PA stakeholders with referential values for accelerated implementation of the model.

As regards the project’s aims, it must be stressed that, along with establishing a scientific model, the challenge of applying the DTM to administrative practice will also be addressed. We will therefore appropriately consider the division of public institutions into service-oriented and authoritative ones and analyse their current maturity in terms of digitalization and define the referential trajectories needed for the targeted digital governance maturity. Since this requires addressing a range of elements, the implementation feasibility will be supported by the model’s focus on directly controllable elements (digital governance principles, enforcing the digital transformation and thus leading to the desired digital governance maturity) and an openly available innovative software solution which will guide users in the public administration concerning individual elements of the transformation, covering dimensions of the administrative & service design and the role of the network of different actors. Public institutions will be presented with the current state of digital transformation within the institution as well as the referential values based on best-performing institutions. For relevant policymakers and citizens, the aggregate results will be particularly useful, with a focus on raising awareness about the least exploited elements of digital transformation. Further, by monitoring the users' feedback, technological improvements and best practices regarding both the DTM and hence the web-based software solution will also be dynamically adjusted, thereby overcoming limitations of the existing finite-state (Meyerhoff Nielsen, 2017) digital governance models.

The known digital governance models are mainly theoretical and technology-focused, and only helpful for mapping the levels of sophistication of e-service offerings and technologically joining the existing fragmented government (Meyerhoff Nielsen, 2017; Pollitt and Bouckaert, 2011). A digitally transformed state requires changing the way public institutions organize (the administrative design dimension), produce and deliver services (the service design dimension) by utilizing the great potential of networks and partnerships between governments, business corporations, and civil society associations (the dimension covering the network of actors). In WP2, we will therefore quantitatively identify the ‘ideal’ instance of the DTM, covering all the mentioned dimensions and related elements of digital governance maturity. Based on the comprehensiveness of this approach, we recognize that an adequate model suiting Slovenia’s public administration digital transformation needs to be developed.

Figure: Operationalization of the digital transformation model (DTM): an original and systematic approach based on digital governance principles (P1–P11), guiding improvements in all dimensions (D1–D3) and underlying elements (E1–E4), finally leading to the targeted digital maturity level (ML43). The DTM builds on an advanced methodology and the authors’ critical evaluation of works by Fountain (2001), Layne and Lee (2001), Davison et al. (2005), Iribarren et al. (2008), Heeks (2015), Janowski (2015) and others.

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Participation in the virtual IRSPM conference 2021

The IRSPM (International research society for public management) conference 2021 theme was »Public management, governance and policy in extraordinary times: challenges and opportunities«. It was held between 20-23 April and was the very first virtual IRSPM conference. With more than 30 panels, 450 accepted abstracts and over 650 registered participants from over 50 countries made the virtual IRSPM conference 2021 a success.

Our research team, working under the Covid-19 Social Science Lab, has presented an abstract on the topic of Covid-19 in public administration, with the title: »Digital transformation of general administrative authorities at local level during Covid-19 pandemic and beyond: A comparative study of five European countries«. The Covid-19 pandemic has significantly reshaped almost all aspects of societal relations, including administrative ones, and digital transformation of public administration proved to be one of the crucial. The main aim of the paper was to (i) ascertain the impact of the first wave of the Covid-19 pandemic on functioning and digital transformation of general administrative authorities at local level; (ii) its implications for public service delivery and their design during the Covid-19 pandemic and beyond; (iii) identify differences between five European countries by using explorative approach. The results on a sample of 926 respondents from Czech Republic, Germany, Poland, Romania, and Slovenia showed that the Covid-19 pandemic, besides several negative consequences, is perceived by public managers also as an opportunity to digitalize work processes in public administration, allowing for higher efficiency and responsiveness as a key determinant of good governance. Pandemic will have a long-lasting impact on the functioning and digital transformation of public administrations and high values for probability of digital changes to remain after the epidemic for all countries that participated in this study indicate they will continue to use digital-based solutions even after the Covid-19 crisis (Figure 1).

Identified differences between public administrations of selected European countries reveal that especially German and Romanian administrative authorities will most probably keep digital changes as the two countries rank the lowest (DESI index 2020) in comparison to other countries taking part in this survey, when it comes to providing digital public services, which enhances the need for digitalization.

Figure 1: Probability of duration of changes after the Covid-19 pandemic

Thematic evolution analysis of digital era governance research (2000-2019)

As a part of a comprehensive research on digital era governance (DEG) research over the past two decades, researchers performed a thematic evolution analysis. The thematic evolution analysis is based on an in-depth examination of author’s keywords through a longitudinal framework, which allows to observe the development of DEG research over time. To focus on the core themes, 500 author’s keywords with minimum cluster frequency (per thousand documents) of 50 are included in the analysis.

The results of the analysis are presented in a Figure 1, whereby the rectangle size is proportional to the number of publications for the corresponding theme, and edge is proportional to the inclusion index between two connected themes. The results reveal that e-government is presented in all four sub-periods and evolves in a stable and compact way from the first sub-period (2000-2004) until the last observed sub-period (2015-2019). Moreover, many of the identified themes represent a continuation or permutation of themes that are identified in a previous sub-period, except innovation, which is identified as a newly developed theme in DEG research between 2010 and 2014. Finally, an in-depth examination reveals that: 1) open data has its roots in transparency evolved from e-government and security; 2) e-participation is mainly derived from social media, which has its roots in e-democracy; 3) e-governance is predominantly evolved from e-government, ICT and innovation; 4) social media has its predecessors in e-democracy, which is derived from e-governance and public administration; and 5) government spills over into public sector over time.

Figure 1: Mapping of the changes in author’s keywords in DEG research by sub-periods
Source: Aristovnik et al., 2021 (forthcoming)

Covid-19 and public administration in Slovenia: The rise of digitalization in response to the Covid-19 epidemic

In June 2020, researchers from the ATLAS project group, in cooperation with the Ministry of Public Administration (MPA), conducted a survey among Slovenian administrative units (AU) as general territorial administrative districts, namely on the functioning of the AU during and after Covid-19. The aim of the research was to identify the key factors and consequences of the functioning of the AU during the (first wave) epidemic - spring 2020 - both in relation to citizens and other natural persons, companies, non-governmental organizations, etc. as well as to parties to administrative proceedings, as in internal relations between the AU and other administrative authorities, and between employees of the AU. All heads of AU (58) responded to the invitation to participate in the survey. The percentage of completion for the (content and demographic) questions was recorded from 77 % to 100 %. Questions or statements mainly concerned the assessment of the opinions of the heads of the AU regarding the developments in the observed institutions during and after the Covid-19 epidemic in relation to normal functioning. Individual claims, unless otherwise stated, were measured using a 5-point Likert scale: “1 = significantly less”, “2 = less”, “3 = equal”, “4 = more”, “5 = significantly more”.

The results of the survey generally showed that in the period from March to June 2020, regulations and measures were adopted very quickly (compared to normal operations) and there were many of them, which together led to certain non-compliances by departments. However, the simplified e-commerce proved to be positive, as shown in the Figure 1, as the use of e-portals, e-mail communication, e-applications and e-service increased significantly, without major or systemic problems. The Figure 2 shows a marked increase in the digitalization of work during the Covid-19 epidemic, both in relation to customers as well as between authorities and employees. At the same time, this meant a greater burden on the AU due to the necessary testing for possible misuses, but there were not many cases. According to the heads of AU, the Covid-19 epidemic also brings lasting changes in the functioning of the AU, especially in terms of digitalisation. Even after the epidemic, greater use of web portals (eGovernment), digital communication channels, accelerated digitalization of processes and changes in regulations for simplified procedures are expected to be maintained. In conclusion, the results of the research showed key changes or needs for them in the functioning of the AU. The full survey report is available on the CovidSocLab website - Public Administration Survey.

Figure 1: The scope and consequences of simplified e - commerce

Figure 2: The rise of digitalization in the AU in external and internal relations

A preliminary review of the scientific literature in the area of the Digital Era Governance

The project conducted activities that upgrade the existing theoretical starting points. In this context, a preliminary review of the scientific literature in the area of the Digital Era Governance has been prepared. In April, we obtained 3,917 units of scientific literature by searching the terms related to Digital Era Governance for the last two decades (2000-2019), which were then divided into five-year periods. We found that both the number of documents as well as the number of citations in the field of management in the digital age are growing sharply over time. Detailed dynamics of the number of documents and citations in the area of Digital Era Governance can be observed in Figure 1.

Figure 1. Distribution of documents and citations by year (2000-2019; N=3.917)

Bilateral cooperation between Slovenia and Northern Europe countries

Members of the project team were successful in applying for bilateral scientific research projects between Slovenia and Northern Europe for the period 2020 to 2022. Of the six projects applied for each country in Northern Europe, 5 projects were approved by the SRA (Denmark, Norway, Estonia, Lithuania and Latvia). Most of the registered or obtained projects are directly or indirectly related to the research in the context of the TRP ATLAS project, as they cover a wide range of aspects from disruptive technologies in the public sector to the challenges of contemporary/digital governance in public administration.

Covid-19 and public administration: Slovenian and international contest

Members of the project team conducted a survey entitled: “The impact of the Covid-19 epidemic on the efficiency of public administration: a case of general territorial administrative units”. The survey was lasted from the beginning of June 2020 to the end of August in comparable administrative bodies in a total of 10 foreign countries as part of the activities within the CovidSocLab project. The main goal of this survey was to identify key challenges and opportunities and present an international comparative analysis of selected public administration organizations during the first wave of the Covid-19 pandemic. The main purpose was to design the proposals for policy makers and public managers through which public administration would operate compliant to good governance principles. The results of the survey show, among other things, that the turbulent problems exposed by the Covid-19 pandemic especially call for digital-based solutions that are sufficiently adaptable, agile and pragmatic to uphold a particular goal or function in the face of continuous/sudden disruptions. Reports on both surveys (Slovenian and international) are available at: http://www.covidsoclab.org/public-administration-survey/.

A number of activities have been performed on a project that are important in terms of preparing theoretical considerations (WP1):

• Participation in the bilateral meeting from 6 to 9 November 2019 with representatives of the Peoples’ Friendship University of Russia (RUDN) in Moscow, where a lecture was given to undergraduate and graduate students of RUDN entitled “Public Governance in the Age of Digitalization: From Principles to a Digital Transformation Model”.
• A relevant database of articles is being prepared, which will allow the creation of appropriate scientific and professional starting points for the development of the digital transformation model. Currently, the most high-profile scientific and professional literature is being collected within relevant databases (compilation of WoS, Scopus, Google Scholar) with a focus on governance in the digital era.
• Acquisition of SRA bilateral project with USA.
• Several contributions have been prepared for internationally recognized conferences (NISPAcee, EGPA, etc.), whose presentation is expected in 2020.

The next steps in the project are aimed at carrying out bibliometric and content analyses, which is a good basis for the further envisaged steps.

On June 14, 2019, the Director of the Public Research Agency of the Republic of Slovenia (ARRS) issued a Decision on the selection of applications for (co) financing of research projects based on the Public call for (co) financing of research projects for 2019 (second phase of evaluation) no. 6316-9 / 2018-1147. Based on this decision, the ARRS issued a Notice on the selection of applications for (co) financing of research projects based on the Call for Proposals (co) financing of research projects for 2019. Following this announcement, research project J5-1789 - Transformation of governance and public sevice delivery mechanisms in the digital age will be (co) funded by 1596 hours per year (price class A) for a period of 3 years. The funding start date is July 1, 2019.

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