e-governance, municipal websites, urban and rural municipalities, Rutgers index, e-governance development factors
Abstract
E-governance is the public sector’s use of information and communication technologies for communication. Thus the usability of public organizations websites’ is a critical factor for this interaction. While the conceptual framework, technological innovation, services measurement, and management of e-governance have been studied extensively, its’ driving factors have not been well understood. The aim of the article is to identify the external factors that influence development of Lithuanian municipal websites. There were investigated correlations between 25 external economic, social, geographic, cultural and political factors and development indexes of municipalities’ websites in this study. Disparities of the external factors were analysed and compared in the groups of urban, rural and all municipalities. Results of the study showed that the wide-ranging complex of external economic, social and geographic factors had significant impact on the development level of websites in the groups of urban and all municipalities. One cultural factor – the number of colleges and universities – also had impact on the development of websites in these municipalities. The smaller complex of economic, social and geographic factors had significant but weak and negative impact on the development of rural municipal websites. Other cultural factors and voter turnout to local councils (political factor) did not significantly determine the development of municipal websites. The major challenge in Lithuanian municipalities remains not only to increase the overall level of e-service usage but go for e-communication. The internal factors analysis is required for comprehensive driving factors impact evaluation.
