Supporting innovation in small local government organizations

E-Government entails the adoption and widespread use of ICTs in Public Administration in order to enable more innovative forms of government and governance. In the past years, which were extensively dominated by the paradigm of online services, E-Government has often been reduced to technological innovation in Public Administration. However, even when they concern highly specific activities of Public Administration, the innovation processes entailed by E-Government involve many different dimensions of innovation that make them different from simple processes of technological innovation. Due to their multidimensionality, the management of the innovation processes entailed by E-Government requires the availability of specialized competencies in various domains, including technology, marketing, communication, policy making and project management that small local government organizations (i.e. municipalities with less than 5000 inhabitants) often lack. However, the non technological aspects of innovation have not been adequately addressed in the policies for supporting the spread of E-Government at the local level which at least in Italy, have mainly (or even exclusively) focused on the funding of technological solutions as the driver for innovation. The paper will discuss what aspects should be considered when devising a supporting model that an authority of a higher institutional level (the Regional Government and the National Government, in the case of Italy) can assume to sustain innovation processes in small local government organizations. The discussion will be based on the case of Lombardy Region (Italy) that, for its characteristics, represents a good case study for evaluating the impact of different policies for the spread of E-Government at the local level. More specifically, by considering the multidimensional character of the innovation processes entailed by E-Government, in the paper it will be claimed that a model for supporting the spread of E-Government at the local level should integrate the funding of technological innovation with the appropriate information, training, assistance as well as control and regulation actions. The need of implementing such actions will be exemplified by considering the results of different funding programmes for the spread of E-Government at the local level that have been delivered to the municipalities of Lombardy (and Italy as well) in the past years.