Exploring Countercyclical Fiscal Policy in Local Government: Moving Beyond an Aggregated Approach
There is a renewed interest in the fiscal health of local governments in the United States, which is being driven in part by academic research, professional organizations, and the economy. This renewed interest also includes how local governments use their cash reserves for countercyclical fiscal policy, which is a stream of research that has received minimal attention in the literature. We respond in this article by exploring how 97 North Carolina counties used their cash reserves from 2005 to 2012, which includes the great recession of 2008 and 2009. Our findings provide some evidence of countercyclical fiscal policy in local government when exploring the use of cash reserves from an aggr…
The determinants and barriers of e-Government Adoption in the Municipality of Palermo
La costante innovazione tecnologica fornisce nuovi spunti per la creazione di network efficienti e lo sviluppo di nuovi business. Anche la Pubblica Amministrazione (PA) vuole sfruttare tali opportunità. In particolare, la PA, attraverso l’implementazione di una strategia di e-Government può mirare a una maggiore efficienza, alla riduzione dell’errore umano e delle frodi. Tuttavia, non si tratta di un mero cambiamento di strumenti. Il passaggio a un’Amministrazione Digitale richiede un cambio di approccio manageriale. Partendo dalla somministrazione di un questionario (sul sito istituzionale del Comune di Palermo, 389 risposte utili) che ha confermato la poca consapevolezza dei cittadini rig…
Navigating efficiency and effectiveness relationships across local government services: Another step toward strategic resource management
A major part of maintaining a well-managed performance measurement system in local government is providing the infrastructure for performance management. The problem is that local officials often struggle with moving from adopting performance measures to actually using them for improving services and for making resource allocation decisions. This article responds to this struggle by presenting information on the relationships between efficiency and effectiveness measures across six local government service areas, with the goal of providing guidance on using performance measures to support strategic resource management. Our research suggests that stronger correlations exist between efficienc…
E-Government's Role in Shifting the Paradigm of Performance in the Public Sector
The emergence of e-government changed the world of the Public Administration (PA) and the discipline of Public Management dramatically. Through the presentation of a case- study of the municipality of Palermo, this article attempts to discuss the renewed need for assessing performance of e-government services in a local government and to disclose the main critical issues in accomplishing this evaluation. Palermo is experiencing the implementation of a second- generation e-government project that is embodied in the realization of a web portal. The conceptualization of a framework to assess the performance of the digital services appears to be crucial in order to improve the system and to avo…
Learning from Failures: a Chance to Overcome the Crisis. E-Government Adoption in the Municipality of Palermo, Italy.
Due to its effect on regional and national competitiveness the issue of e- Government has become particularly relevant in the light of an ongoing financial crisis. Mostly because e-Government has a great potential in reducing the cost of regulatory compliance for government customers, in improving efficiency and tax administration and in avoiding frauds and errors. However, it must not be considered as a simple set of tools for technological innovation but rather a phenomenon that requires redesigning the entire institutional governance model and the roles of the main actors involved. This paper presents part of the PhD thesis project of the author on the implementation and adoption of e-Go…
Combining system dynamics modelling and management control systems to support strategic learning processes in SMEs: a Dynamic Performance Management approach
Traditional management control systems, mainly centred on accounting-based measures, are widely recognized as useful tools to support Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) managers and entrepreneurs in steering business development. However, due to the increasing turbulence and dynamic complexity that characterize today’s competitive arenas, such systems need to be combined with simulation-based methodologies in order to improve entrepreneurial learning processes and, as a result, better detect possible crisis symptoms and weak signals of change—emerging from the business environment—to promptly react. Therefore, the aim of this paper is to show how a combination of traditional management con…