A Transnational Network for Public Sector Innovation: The Impact of a Global Digital Government Reform Network on Public Administration at the Domestic Level

Abstract

This study investigates the impact of a global E-government reform network on an individual country's E-government performance. As keeping pace with changing environments becomes one of the essential tasks for governments to retain problem-solving capacity, scholars have paid a lot of attention to the determinants of public sector innovation. However, how the ideas of reform and innovation have been communicated at the international or intergovernmental level has been paid less attention. To fill the gap in the literature, we have constructed a social network dataset covering 179 countries for the period 2010 to 2013. This dataset records whether countries sent government officials to E-government related workshops and conferences hosted by the UN and the OECD. The results show that the embeddedness within the transnational network facilitates the pursuit of E-government innovation. We also find that the well-established bureaucratic institution and competitive IT industry contribute to the E-government performance.