Conception and Implementation of Digital Government Projects: The Role of Knowledge Transfer

In recent years, the possibilities the Internet offers have increasingly gained in importance for government agencies. First, with tasks continuously growing in complexity and with more decentralized structures, Internet-related technologies have become a necessity for the functioning of government agencies. Second, the managerial mindset created by public sector reforms such as the National Performance Review in the United States (Osborne & Gaebler, 1992) or the New Public Management in Europe (Barzelay, 2001) demanded that the citizens’ interests be put at the core of public administration’s attention, advocating a customer orientation comparable to the private sector. Together with the information society as a driving force, this has led politicians and government officials all over the world to invest large resources in new technologies in order to make public services available online.