Emerging Technologies in Municipal Governments: A Mexican Case from a Qualitative Approach

Abstract

Technologies have evolved very fast in the last years and the use of these new technologies (emerging technologies) have been widely adopted in public administrations. The research reported in this paper follows a qualitative approach applied to three municipalities, focusing on current events in order to answer two question: Which emerging technologies are used by municipal governments in the State of Mexico? and How do these emerging technologies interact with organizational forms and outputs in municipal governments of the State of Mexico? Based on the Fountain's Technology Enactment Theory, semi-structured interviews were conducted to ten participants. Findings show that emerging technologies in developing countries improve organizational efficiency, create new communication channels, break bureaucratic barriers, and help the decision-making process. Technology, boosted by laws, increases transparency, improves Government to Citizen interaction (G2C). Mobile technology is an important tool to generate emergent communication channels within organizations and to improve G2C. The dynamic interaction between emerging technologies, organizational forms and outcomes in municipalities in the State of Mexico, is driven by legislation. Technology Enactment Theory represents a suitable framework to study the interaction between technologies and organizations, especially in governments. However, with the evolution of governments, they are developing different kinds of technologies oriented to service delivery. So, it is important to add the citizenship component, in order to answer questions such as those generated in the current research. It is important to identify the answers to this kind of questions and it is also important to identify good practices, policies, and technology's implementation, that could be applied in similar governments, in order to have success in E-Government's projects.