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Purpose The world is facing global challenges that require international collaboration. This study aims to describe and analyze how digital technologies are applied in global governance to respond to such critical challenges. Design/methodology/approach The authors apply an interpretive case study of climate reporting to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) as a case of digitalization in global governance. It includes interviews with officials in the Swedish public administration and the UNFCCC secretariat to cover national and international levels. The authors describe the reporting process and analyze the role of information systems through the lens of information infrastructures. Findings “Information infrastructure” is a valuable instrument to understand digitalization in global governance as a complex interplay between information systems, information, standards, organizations, people and social structures. The level of sophistication is, however, basic with a large potential for improvement – for instance in analytical and communicative services to support evidence-based decision-making and assessment of progress. Research limitations/implications The data collection is limited to one governance process: reporting. Future studies should complement the findings by broadening the scope to other processes. The authors propose that digital global governance is dependent on an effective information infrastructure, and that the five design principles by Hanseth and Lyytinen (2016) offer guidance when developing this. Practical implications The results indicate a large unutilized potential of digital technologies to improve progress assessment, communicate more effectively with stakeholders and identify new ways of visualizing data to support decision making in global climate policy. Social implications Use of digital technologies, as suggested in the article, could strengthen the implementation capability of climate goals, which is of urgent need. Originality/value While most research in digital governance considers the national or municipal level, this study provides empirical insight and theorization of digital technologies in a global governance setting.

Over the past decades a number of benefits realisation (BR) frameworks have been developed. The benefits management model (BMM) is considered to be the most widely adopted and is often seen as a reference for good practice in digitalisation efforts in single organisations. However, this literature provides little support for complex, inter‑organisational efforts. This is problematic, considering that digitalisation increasingly involves multiple organisations. To explore this gap, we studied the phenomenon in a Norwegian inter‑organisational eHealth effort. Based on a qualitative study involving 50 interviews, observations and document analyses, we identify five distinct challenges and suggest a research agenda with five propositions for benefits management in complex digitalisation settings that can be further explored and tested by other researchers. The challenges and propositions constitute novel insights into a poorly understood area and contain implications and directions that can benefit both researchers and practitioners working in similar contexts.

Part 3: Organizational Aspects; International audience; While work with benefits realization requires organizational learning to be effective, emphasis on organizational learning is hard to find in benefits realization studies. To remedy this research gap, we study how organizational learning theory can contribute to improve benefits realization processes. A qualitative approach was used to gain in depth understanding of benefits realization in an ICT healthcare services project. We found that individual learning is present, but organizational learning has not been given explicit attention neither in the project nor in the literature of benefits realization management. We argue that the individual learning in the project forms an excellent basis for organizational learning, i.e., in the form of organizational structures, routines, and methods for benefits realization.

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to explore practical methods for benefits realisation, with the intention of investigating if they are variance of a theme or rather can be classified as different approaches.Design/methodology/approachBased on a document study of Norwegian methods‐in‐use, this study uses an analytical comparison following an assimilation‐accommodation procedure to categorize the chosen methods as instances of approaches to benefits realisation.FindingsThis study documents the emergence of several methods from practice in the last half decade. This analysis suggests the existence of three distinct approaches to benefits realisation and defines these according to their central features.Research limitations/implicationsThis is a document study that could have been enhanced by empirical data on first‐hand experiences from the use of these methods. The findings of this study document a critical investigation of methods for benefits realisation, providing an enhanced base framework of three approaches for future research to build on.Originality/valueThis study provides fresh perspectives on benefits realisation by suggesting that existing methods differ to an extent that the authors argue they belong to different approaches that are likely to cause quite different results in practical use. This has important implications for both research and practice, as research should analyse benefits realisation efforts according to approach, and practice needs to carefully consider their choice of method based on their actual needs. Further, the paper employs an established analytical framework for a novel definition of approaches to the field of benefits realisation in the public sector.

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to promote academic discourse around the understanding of the concept of value of eGovernment and how a diverse set of benefits or values can be realized from eGovernment efforts.Design/methodology/approachThe paper is designed as a viewpoint paper with emphasis on grounding a set of arguments on current practice and relevant scholarly papers.FindingsAlthough not based on a formal, structured review, the paper proposes that the concept of value in relation to eGovernment is insufficiently discussed and defined in the eGovernment literature. Based on the high failure rates of eGovernment efforts, it further proposes that structured approaches to benefits realization, in combination with increased focus on (public) value, can be fruitful avenues for future research. The complexity of the context and the research challenges makes interdisciplinary research teams a necessity.Originality/valueIf addressed, the research propositions can lead to an increased understanding of the complexity of the concept of value related to eGovernment. Further, the propositions promote research that can lead to more pertinent documentation of the actual value of various eGovernment efforts as well as research of good practice on how government organizations can increase their opportunities to maximize value from their eGovernment spendings.

Purpose This paper aims to examine major stakeholders’ communication preferences in eParticipation initiatives and discuss how this affects the public sphere. Despite the potential of social media, it has proven difficult to get people actively involved in the decision-making processes. There is a need for more research on how stakeholders manage and use social media to communicate. Design/methodology/approach The study was conducted as a qualitative case study. Data sources include interviews, social media content, document analysis and field notes. Findings Communication preferences of stakeholders vary according to their salience level. Stakeholders with higher salience are less likely to participate in social media, whereas those who are less salient will use every available medium to gain influence. This challenges the opportunity to create a traditional public sphere in social media. Research limitations/implications The authors contribute to a better understanding of who participates in social media and why. Stakeholder salience analysis shows that in the case of citizen-initiated eParticipation, social media cannot be seen as a Habermasian public sphere. Practical implications The authors suggest two approaches for government officials’ handling of social media: to treat social media as a channel for input and knowledge about the concerns of citizen groups and to integrate social media in the formal processes of decision making to develop consultative statements on specific policy issues. Social implications The study shows that power and urgency are the most important salience attributes. These findings indicate that social media may not be as inclusive as early research indicates, and less active social media users may have power and influence through other channels. Originality/value The findings extend current knowledge of the public sphere by adding the stakeholder perspective in addition to existing evaluative models of the public sphere.

Published version of a chapter in the book: Electronic Participation. Also available from the publisher at: http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-33250-0_3 This paper examines the expectations and communication needs of relevant stakeholder groups for municipal eParticipation in a small Norwegian municipality. We identified relevant stakeholder groups with the municipality, and asked them about their communication preferences through a combined Delphi study and survey approach. The findings show that information about local issues, information about issues relevant for the individual stakeholder, and dialogue on business’ needs and employment are the three most important communication needs. E-mail and the municipal web site are the two preferred modes of communication, with social media ranking third. For dialogue and participation, a face to face meeting is the preferred mode of communication. Our findings show that effective municipal communication requires a number of different media, depending on what is being communicated. We conclude by outlining a framework for media choice in eParticipation.

Author's version of a chapter in Proceeding of 41th Hawaii International Conference on System Sciences. Also available from the publisher at http://dx.doi.org/10.1109/HICSS.2008.55 Efforts to improve governance and government functions through the use of information technology continue to draw considerable parts of the budgets of government agencies. To meet public and political demands for increased visibility of effects of e- Government investments, there is a trend to extend existing practices of evaluation towards more holistic management practices, commonly referred to as benefits management. However, benefits management practices and effects of such practices are poorly documented. This paper presents a particular approach to benefits management that has been developed by the Norwegian government. The technique has been applied in 48 e-Government projects and this paper presents insights from the application of the technique and discusses its' strengths and weaknesses.