Digital government transformation: A structural equation modelling analysis of driving and impeding factors

Digital technologies are transforming the public sector by affecting applications, processes, culture, structure, and civil servants’ responsibilities and tasks. Yet, there is a void in research about driving and impeding factors influencing digital government transformation (DGT). The article contributes to the current debate on DGT by quantitatively assessing the transformation and its driving and impeding factors. The analyses were performed by collecting and analyzing through structural equation modeling 491 answers to a survey to Italian administrations. Results show that DGT is influenced by a combination of different factors, including the sense of urgency, the need for change, and the creation of a collaborative environment, suggesting that more effort is required for including public managers in the current debate on DGT. Organizational barriers and lack of support are impeding factors. Finally and counter-intuitively, resistance to change was not found to impede the transformation.