E‐Government maturity assessment: Evidence from Greek municipalities

Abstract Several e‐Government maturity models have been developed throughout the years to assess the progress of e‐Government. This diversity of models has drawn some criticism in terms of their similarity, oversimplicity, one‐sided view and the characteristics incorporated in their stages. The goal of this study is to explore if a simple e‐Government maturity model can capture e‐Government progress and if operations can be classified into phases to give a realistic view of e‐Government. An adapted version of the United Nations e‐Government maturity model was used to assess the portals of the 50 largest municipalities of Greece. The factors influencing the e‐Government maturity development are examined through ordinal regression. The findings suggest that e‐Government maturity models have limited ability to capture the e‐Government development as it may not be considered linear. Municipal authorities have taken steps towards e‐Government, however, they are missing functionalities that are at the core of digital transformation. Finally, the findings indicate, that factors such as population, political ideology of the ruling party, budget and the mayor's gender have limited role in predicting the e‐Government maturity in the cases examined.