E-government public-private partnerships: the 'Gorod' payments system in Siberia

摘要

Purpose - To examine and draw lessons from the experience of creating and implementing a unique e-government payments system ("Gorod") in a little-studied area of the world. Design/methodology/approach - An interpretivistic methodology is used based on interviews of system developers, discussion forums, collection and tabulation of Gorod web site data, and contemporaneous sources. Findings - Gorod permits hundreds of thousands of citizens in about 25 Siberian cities to make in-person or electronic payments on a single, unified bill to a wide range of public and private service suppliers. While Gorod does improve municipal payments collections, cities where banks run Gorod have been less successful than those with more neutral public-private partnerships. Research limitations/implications - Diffusion of innovation theory (DIT) provides a useful framework for examining a system at this level of granularity. Practical implications - By joining public and private activities in one system, and by creating an infrastructure for the expansion of e-government as the population transfers its activity to the internet, Gorod suggests a viable means for bringing e-government to countries with less developed payment means and lower levels of internet penetration. When appropriate incentives are in place, e-government technologies can have successful diffusion without requiring an extensive, top-down program. Originality/value - This subject is unknown in the Western academic literature. While exhibiting typical characteristics suggested by DIT, Gorod also shows a means of overcoming the "chicken and egg" network externalities problem.