Establishing a framework for eGovernment research: Project VIEGO

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to present an exploratory research project to determine the needs for future eGovernment research. The project aimed particularly at getting relevant stakeholder views as a contrast to the received academic wisdom or political rhetoric. Design/methodology/approach – The Virtual Institute for Electronic Government Research used a series of five consultation workshops spread around the UK, to acquire data which were subsequently analysed using a grounded theory approach. Findings – The paper finds that full achievements of eGovernment have yet to been determined. Stakeholders are not eager to develop more novel IT but among their primary concerns are the need to understand how to manage constant change, the need for flexibility and the need to coordinate and integrate policy and practice. Research limitations/implications – There are still many unanswered questions and the future research agenda will require a multi-disciplinary approach involving a combination of social, technological and organisational issues. Practical implications – Lack of an agreed concept of social value and poor co-ordination is holding back progress. Originality/value – This paper outlines the need for such fieldwork and discusses the methodology adopted to elicit the stakeholders' views without influencing the debate. It also presents schemas showing the interaction of research issues around the main findings