Challenges of Digital Service Provision for Local Governments from the Citizens’ View: Comparing Citizens’ Expectations and Their Experiences of Digital Service Provision

Abstract

The digital transformation of local public administrations’ service delivery is analysed from the citizens’ perspective, comparing their expectations, actual use and satisfaction. Combining several datasets from the case of German local government for secondary analysis, the results show that the expectations are much higher than the actual availability of e-services. In particular the younger and higher educated citizens show greater levels of disappointment when using these services, being more open to using e-services. While the older users are quite satisfied with what they get, the younger generation are mostly highly unsatisfied and frustrated with the available e-services. For a future outlook, this topic should be prioritised much more, especially with the demographic change and the increase of high expectations.