Creating public value through public e-Services development: The case of landscaping and public amenities in St. Petersburg

Abstract

Development of public e-services as part of the e-government strategy is a trend in recent decades. Public e-services (from informational to transactional ones) transfer and develop in various spheres of citizens’ interaction with authorities (from obtaining information to participation in voting). This provides broad advantages for government authorities, individual users, and society as a whole - from reducing transaction costs to increasing public trust in the government. Benefits from public e-services implementation have been widely discussed in scientific literature. However, in recent years, integrated solutions for benefits assessment have become increasingly important, allowing to cover systematically various possible effects from public e-services introduction. One of these approaches is the concept of public value, which was formulated in the 1990s, and has been widely applied in public sector only from the beginning of 2000. Public value describes the value that the government makes to the society. In this research, the possibility of applying of the public value concept to assessment of potential benefits from public e-services implementation is illustrated by the example of citizens’ claims on landscaping and public amenities, which are provided by local authorities.