An empirical study on business-to-government data exchange strategies to reduce the administrative costs for businesses

Abstract

In recently developed policies the electronic exchange of data with governmental organisations is seen as a means to help reduce the administrative burden for businesses. Even laws have become active to enforce electronic data filing. However, we do not know whether these eGovernment applications do help reduce the administrative burden, so we do not know whether this new legislation is effective either. Although many business-to-government systems are currently being implemented, the adoption of these data interchange systems in a governmental context has not yet been studied extensively. In the study reported in this paper we investigate data exchange related adoption strategies in order to be able to address (in)effective strategies for the reduction of the administrative burden. We present an analysis of adoption factors that influence adoption decisions of SME companies in this context. Based on a representative survey we found some factors that seem to be relevant for the (non)adoption of business-to-government data exchange systems. We found that especially small companies tend to outsource eGovernment related data exchange processes. Therefore we conclude that it is very unlikely that the governments' aims to reduce administrative burden are met using current implementation strategies. We suggest an adapted strategy.