This study examines the different levels of adoption of sustainability practices among Spanish un... more This study examines the different levels of adoption of sustainability practices among Spanish universities and the factors that drive them to disclose stand-alone sustainability reports. The findings reveal three patterns of adoption of sustainability practices and indicate that only around one third of Spanish universities disclose up-to-date sustainability reports on their websites. Disclosure is positively related to universities’ commitment to sustainability and their participation in international sustainability rankings, reflecting a strategic orientation of the organization towards sustainability. This article’s main contribution to previous literature is the analysis of sustainability practices and sustainability reporting in a whole university system.
Se analiza la interacción de las instituciones de auditoría pública con los usuarios a través de ... more Se analiza la interacción de las instituciones de auditoría pública con los usuarios a través de los medios de comunicación social. Además de determinar factores explicativos de la adopción de estos medios por parte de las instituciones de auditoría pública europeas centrales y regionales, se lleva a cabo un análisis comparativo de las redes sociales que más utilizan, para contestar las siguientes preguntas: ¿cómo utilizan las instituciones de auditoría pública europeas los medios de comunicación social? y ¿cuál es el nivel de seguimiento e interacción de sus usuarios? Este trabajo analiza 92 instituciones de auditoría pública europeas: 28 instituciones de auditoría centrales (supreme audit institutions, SAIs), 63 regionales (regional audit institutions, RAIs) y la European Court of Auditors (ECA). Los resultados indican que el nivel de uso de los medios de comunicación social por parte de estas instituciones es reducido, con mayores niveles de adopción en las SAIs, en los territorios con mayor número de habitantes y con estilos de administración pública anglosajón, nórdico y del Este de Europa. Los resultados también muestran que las redes sociales se utilizan principalmente para transmitir información sobre las actividades que realizan y que las publicaciones que buscan mejorar la imagen de las instituciones son las que generan una mayor repercusión en los usuarios. Las publicaciones dirigidas a comenzar un diálogo con los usuarios son las menos frecuentes. Los usuarios interaccionan más en Facebook que en Twitter, siendo los “me gusta” la reacción más común y los comentarios la menos frecuente.
The adoption of businesslike boards of directors in the public sector has to be evaluated in term... more The adoption of businesslike boards of directors in the public sector has to be evaluated in terms of financial and non-financial outcomes. This paper investigates, using a structural equation model, the relationship of certain board characteristics with the performance of English NHS foundation trusts. Larger and more independent boards do not harm performance. Having a woman chairing the board is related to better service quality. Boards seem to be more concerned about service quality issues than about financial problems.
Electronic participation (e-participation) has grown across the world in recent decades and many ... more Electronic participation (e-participation) has grown across the world in recent decades and many governments offer a range of opportunities for e-participation. However, there is a lack of comparative analyses of successful initiatives, which can be useful in supporting subsequent adopters. This study identifies the best practices and areas for improvement of Decide Madrid and We asked, You said, We did in Scotland, whose software has been widely adopted by hundreds of institutions worldwide. Key common enablers include political leadership and senior management support, top-down approach, high levels of internal and external collaboration, embeddedness in the formal policy-making processes, and careful consideration of design features. Most of these factors are related to processes, organizational, or managerial dimensions, rather than being linked to the institutional context or information and communication technologies. Areas for improvement relate to the way the initiatives provide feedback, allow discussion and flexibility on policy options, incorporate possibilities for offline participation, and involve a wider range of stakeholders. An important contribution is the identification of factors contributing to the robustness and continuity of e-participation initiatives, combining the flexibility of collaborative network governance and the stability of public bureaucracy.
This paper analyzes the award-winning e-participation initiative of the city council of Madrid, D... more This paper analyzes the award-winning e-participation initiative of the city council of Madrid, Decide Madrid, to identify the critical success factors and the main barriers that are conditioning its performance. An exploratory case study is used as a research technique, including desk research and semi-structured interviews. The analysis distinguishes contextual, organizational and individual level factors; it considers whether the factors or barriers are more related to the information and communication technology (ICT) component, public sector context or democratic participation; it also differentiates among the different stages of the development of the initiative. Results show that individual and organizational factors related to the public sector context and democratic participation are the most relevant success factors. The high expectations of citizens explain the high levels of participation in the initial stages of Decide Madrid. However, the lack of transparency and poor functioning of some of its participatory activities (organizational factors related to the ICT and democratic dimensions) are negatively affecting its performance. The software created for this platform, Consul, has been adopted or it is in the process of being implemented in more than 100 institutions in 33 countries. Therefore, the findings of this research can potentially be useful to improve the performance and sustainability of e-participation platforms worldwide.
Several authors and international organizations have recommended that public sector Audit Institu... more Several authors and international organizations have recommended that public sector Audit Institutions use social media (SM) to communicate with and engage stakeholders, but the adoption and use of these tools by Audit Institutions has remained unexplored. This paper analyzes the presence of Audit Institutions in Web 2.0 and SM tools, in the EU and US, at regional and central government level, in order to answer the following research questions: What is the level of adoption of Web 2.0 and SM tools among Audit Institutions? Can any patterns of adoption be identified? What factors are related to the adoption of Web 2.0 and SM tools? What is the main objective of the content published? What is the number of followers and the level of citizen awareness? Results show that the adoption of Web 2.0 and SM tools by Audit Institutions is at an initial stage. There are differences in adoption between Supreme and Regional Audit Institutions, among the different public administration styles, and depending on the population size and level of use of SM and previous levels of transparency at country level. This results in predictable patterns of adoption consistent with path dependencies derived from the institutional context and citizen demands. The number of followers and citizens' awareness is generally low and the contents published rarely aim at encouraging stakeholder participation. Based on these findings, theoretical and practical implications are highlighted.
Female chief executive officers (CEOs) of NHS foundation trusts have increased from 37% in 2012/1... more Female chief executive officers (CEOs) of NHS foundation trusts have increased from 37% in 2012/13 to 47% in 2017/18. This paper shows that, in the five-year period analysed, the gender pay gap (GPG) has narrowed to become insignificant. The paper suggests the improvement of female presence and the narrowing of the GPG go hand-in-hand, at least for these public sector top managers. It also provides indication that the GPG is multifaceted, women may sacrifice high salaries for future financial security. Women and men could also be negotiating salaries in a different way, signalling gender traits differences.
Las administraciones públicas publican datos abiertos para su posterior reutilización por la ciud... more Las administraciones públicas publican datos abiertos para su posterior reutilización por la ciudadanía. Además de un evidente impacto en la transparencia, los datos abiertos tienen un importante potencial económico, lo que explica el auge de las iniciativas para su difusión. Cada vez más administraciones deciden crear un portal de datos abiertos y las entidades locales no se han mantenido al margen de esta tendencia. Pocos trabajos empíricos han evaluado este tipo de portales y los análisis son mayoritariamente de tipo cualitativo o se limitan a un número reducido de portales, por lo que no existen pautas generalmente aceptadas para evaluar su implementación. Por ello, la principal contribución de este trabajo es la definición de una metodología para analizar los portales de datos abiertos, así como su aplicación a una muestra de municipios de España, país que está a la vanguardia en reutilización de datos en Europa. Además, se analiza la información económico-financiera que ofrecen los municipios en sus portales de datos abiertos, por ser fundamental para la rendición de cuentas, la lucha contra la corrupción y la evaluación de la sostenibilidad y eficacia de la prestación de servicios públicos. Los resultados muestran que todavía queda mucho por avanzar en este campo. Sólo un 40% de las ciudades analizadas cuentan con un portal de datos abiertos y la puntuación media de la muestra analizada no alcanza el 50%. La mayoría de los portales parecen funcionar como simples repositorios de datos, descuidado aspectos que fomentan la utilización de los datos por parte de un público no experto, la rendición de cuentas, la participación ciudadana y la calidad de los datos suministrados (por ejemplo, definición de metadatos utilizados), por lo que se concluye planteando algunas recomendaciones de mejora.
El uso de redes sociales y otras herramientas de la Web 2.0 ha cobrado gran importancia en el sec... more El uso de redes sociales y otras herramientas de la Web 2.0 ha cobrado gran importancia en el sector público, ya que posibilita una nueva forma de comunicación entre la administración y la ciudadanía. Para conocer su impacto se necesitan métricas y metodologías de análisis apropiadas. Este trabajo ilustra la utilización de diversas métricas de uso de Facebook en el ámbito municipal, tanto por parte de los ayuntamientos como de la ciudadanía, tomando una muestra de ayuntamientos españoles y datos disponibles públicamente. Los resultados muestran que un porcentaje considerable de ayuntamientos no usa Facebook para comunicarse con los ciudadanos. Los ayuntamientos que si usan Facebook solo alcanzan niveles modestos de seguimiento e interacción, no utilizan los medios que más impacto generan en los usuarios, ni los contenidos que generan más repercusión. Por tanto, se pone de manifiesto que las entidades locales deben replantearse sus estrategias de uso de estas herramientas para mejorar la interacción con el ciudadano.
REVISTA DE CONTABILIDAD - SPANISH ACCOUNTING REVIEW, 2019
Ensuring public access to the information that State-Owned Enterprises (SOEs) produce is necessar... more Ensuring public access to the information that State-Owned Enterprises (SOEs) produce is necessary andcorporate websites should be used for this purpose. However, there is a lack of research analyzing the ac-countability of SOEs. This paper aims to identify different accountability patterns among SOEs by carryingout an assessment of the e-disclosure levels of Spanish SOEs. For this purpose, a comprehensive websitecontent analysis of 91 SOEs owned by the Spanish central government was carried out. Each website wasanalyzed for 60 items classified into 4 dimensions: 1) financial information, 2) information about object-ives and strategies, 3) corporate governance and 4) usability. In order to identify different accountabilitypatterns among SOEs, cluster, multidimensional scaling and Pro-Fit analyses were carried out. Resultsshow that e-disclosure practices among Spanish SOEs are still in their infancy. Financial accountabilityis the main focus of SOEs disclosures and most are silent about their policies, objectives and corporategovernance structures. The majority of them are still anchored in a narrow accountability style that onlyconsiders shareholders as the key stakeholders and they are a long way from fulfilling the OECD recommend-ation that they should be as transparent as listed companies. Furthermore, results show that enforcementof transparency-related legislation is scarce in Spain. Based on these findings, some recommendations toimprove e-disclosure practices among SOEs are suggested.
This Special Issue aims to provide knowledge about how citizen participation can promote sustaina... more This Special Issue aims to provide knowledge about how citizen participation can promote sustainable decision-making at the local level, i.e., how citizen participation can promote positive effects on the environmental, social, and economic dimensions at the local level, and what the drivers of and barriers to achieving these positive effects are. The following themes would be of particular interest (NB: this list is not exhaustive): - What is the effect of citizen participation on environmental protection? - How can e-participation promote sustainable decision-making at the local level? - To what extent and how are cities including sustainable development goals (SDG) in their citizen participation strategies? - Are public sector managers adequately considering the three dimensions of sustainable decisionmaking (i.e., the environmental, social, and economic dimensions) when adopting citizen participation at the local level? - Case studies of best practices in citizen participation in sustainable local decision-making.
Performance measures and rewards are becoming commonplace in public sector organizations. This pa... more Performance measures and rewards are becoming commonplace in public sector organizations. This paper studies the implementation of performance-related pay (PRP) mechanisms in the boards of directors of the Foundation Trusts (FTs) of the National Health Service (NHS) in England and analyzes whether their remuneration is linked to organizational performance using qualitative and quantitative analyses (structural equation model). FTs operate in a favorable context for implementing PRP to remunerate executive directors. Our results show that many FTs have not implemented PRP and hardly any report having payed bonuses. However, most of them disclose that they carry out some kind of performance appraisal. These results indicate both reluctance to and difficulties in adopting PRP in public sector entities. Results also suggest that executive directors of NHS FTs are stewards in an “odd” kingdom that uses performance ratings to evaluate organizations, blaming directors when ratings are bad, but with no rewards when good performance is achieved.
The aim of this paper is to study the expectations of environmental senior managers, as experts i... more The aim of this paper is to study the expectations of environmental senior managers, as experts in this field, about the effect of e-participation in the fight against climate change. Their experiences in, and the fulfillment of their expectations about, citizen participation in local government environmental programs have been analyzed through different questionnaires in order to answer the following research questions. What effects can be expected from citizen participation in environmental programs? What conditions are necessary for, and what barriers are there to, successful participation processes? Is e-participation more effective than traditional citizen participation? The results confirm that e-participation is only an enabler of citizen engagement in participation processes, but it does not overcome all the barriers to these processes. The success of citizen participation cannot be guaranteed merely by introducing ICTs. The integration of e-participation with traditional offline tools for citizen participation is needed.
Public administrations need to find innovative approaches to solving changing problems and to ful... more Public administrations need to find innovative approaches to solving changing problems and to fulfilling their duties. Crowdsourcing in local governments could be defined as the use of new technologies in order to take advantage of citizen knowledge to find solutions to municipal problems. This paper analyzes two experiences of crowdsourcing at local level, and the opinions of the citizens and managers involved, to provide an initial assessment of its effectiveness and suggest avenues for improvement. Engaging citizens in e-participation initiatives is a challenge but, for public sector crowdsourcing initiatives, intrinsic motivation and intangible rewards seem to be enough to motivate participants. Results show that managers find citizens’ propositions viable, but publishing the final results and indicating how the ideas selected will be further developed are pending tasks. Caution is needed as failure to deliver the benefits deemed essential by citizens can make them even more reluctant to engage
This study analyzes whether there are any differences in enrollment and drop-out rates between e-... more This study analyzes whether there are any differences in enrollment and drop-out rates between e-participation and traditional participation in a long-term citizen collaboration project. The theoretical framework is based on networked individualism. Results show that capturing and maintaining citizen interest is a daunting task, even in a sensitive topic that might generate positive and tangible benefits for citizens. The higher levels of accessibility offered by information and communication technologies (ICTs) are not enough to reverse public apathy, and person-to-person contact is more effective to maintain engagement. Based on the findings, some actions to reduce dropout in long-term citizen collaboration projects are suggested.
There is a very limited empirical research examining the impact of media and content types on sta... more There is a very limited empirical research examining the impact of media and content types on stakeholders' engagement on social media platforms, and basically none within the public sector. The purpose of this study is to measure the impact of media and content types on stakeholders' engagement on Western European local governments' Facebook pages. The sample includes 15-member countries of the EU via 75 local governments belonging to four different public administration styles, analyzing 50 posts from each municipality. The posts were coded into 16 content types (e.g. environment, housing) and 5 media types (e.g. video, text), respectively. Metrics of popularity, commitment, virality and engagement were also computed for each post. Results show that the most used media types are links and photos. Cultural activities, sports and marketing related topics are the most widely posted by Western European local governments, but these contents do not seem to be the most relevant for citizens. Local governments' preferences to different media and content types seem to depend on the institutional context. Significant differences on engagement levels by citizens have also been found among media and content types and in different institutional contexts. This study provides practitioners and academics with some initial research findings about the effect of different communicational strategies on citizen engagement, which are very important factors in order to improve the effectiveness of e-participation offerings.
The objective of this article is to provide an initial assessment of Facebook use by Western Euro... more The objective of this article is to provide an initial assessment of Facebook use by Western European municipalities considering two aspects: citizens’ engagement and municipalities’ activity. Data on 75 local governments in 15 countries were collected and tested for both government use and citizens’ engagement. Findings show that the use of Facebook by Western European local governments has become commonplace. The audiences of the official Facebook pages are rather high, but citizen engagement in general is low. Activity levels by municipalities and engagement levels by citizens in general terms are not statistically related to municipality characteristics, Facebook page metrics, or the technological readiness of the population. It seems that channel activity is more a decision on the part of local governments than a consequence of citizen demand. This article proposes a methodology that can be used in future research to measure citizen engagement on social media (SM) platforms. Furthermore, this research highlights the importance that local governments attach to clearly establishing the main purpose of their SM accounts to avoid frustration on the part of citizens that can lead to distrust and reduce the chances that citizens will invest their resources, time, and knowledge in participation.
There is widespread acceptance that current institutions are inadequate to address the challenges... more There is widespread acceptance that current institutions are inadequate to address the challenges of sustainable development. At the same time, there is an urgent need to build awareness and increase capacity for promoting action with respect to environmental protection at the local level. This article analyzes the Web sites of the environment departments of European local governments that signed the Aalborg Commitments to determine the extent to which they are using the Internet to promote e-participation in environmental topics and to identify the drivers of these developments. Potential drivers are public administration style, urban vulnerability, external pressures, and local government environmental culture. Findings confirm that e-participation is a multifaceted concept. External pressures influence the transparency of environmental Web sites, while public administration style and local government environmental culture influence their interactivity.
Various authors have highlighted the potential contribution of the internet to enhance the intera... more Various authors have highlighted the potential contribution of the internet to enhance the interactivity, transparency, and openness of public sector entities and to promote new forms of accountability. The search for new styles of governance which promote higher levels of transparency and the engagement of citizens is viewed as a way of improving citizens' trust in governments. As the social media are becoming ubiquitous, both academics and practitioners need some initial and reliable background data about the deployment of this kind of technology at all levels. The aim of this work is to provide an overall view about the use of Web 2.0 and social media tools in EU local governments in order to determine whether local governments are using these technologies to increase transparency and e-participation, opening a real corporate dialog. In addition, the paper tries to identify which factors promote the level of development of these tools at local level. Our results show that most local governments are using Web 2.0 and social media tools to enhance transparency but, in general, the concept of corporate dialog and the use of Web 2.0 to promote e-participation are still in their infancy at the local level.► Most local governments are using Web 2.0 and social media to enhance transparency. ► The use of Web 2.0 to promote e-participation is still in its infancy. ► EU local governments are lagging behind their citizens in the use of the Web 2.0. ► The use of Web 2.0 and social media tools does not depend on citizen demand. ► The use of Web 2.0 is only related to previous e-government levels of development.
This article analyzes how extensively European Union local governments are using their websites t... more This article analyzes how extensively European Union local governments are using their websites to disseminate financial information in order to evaluate whether electronic-government (e-government) is promoting convergence towards more accountable local governments. We also posit and test various hypotheses about the influence of internal and contextual factors on Internet financial reporting (IFR) practices. Results show that the public administration style, the size of the city, and the audit of financial information by private firms are significant explanatory factors of IFR practices. Our findings also suggest that multilateral organizations are overly optimistic about the possible convergence in transparency and financial accountability through the use of common modes of IFR. That is, the introduction of information and communication technologies without the corresponding institutional reform is leading to limited success of IFR.
This study examines the different levels of adoption of sustainability practices among Spanish un... more This study examines the different levels of adoption of sustainability practices among Spanish universities and the factors that drive them to disclose stand-alone sustainability reports. The findings reveal three patterns of adoption of sustainability practices and indicate that only around one third of Spanish universities disclose up-to-date sustainability reports on their websites. Disclosure is positively related to universities’ commitment to sustainability and their participation in international sustainability rankings, reflecting a strategic orientation of the organization towards sustainability. This article’s main contribution to previous literature is the analysis of sustainability practices and sustainability reporting in a whole university system.
Se analiza la interacción de las instituciones de auditoría pública con los usuarios a través de ... more Se analiza la interacción de las instituciones de auditoría pública con los usuarios a través de los medios de comunicación social. Además de determinar factores explicativos de la adopción de estos medios por parte de las instituciones de auditoría pública europeas centrales y regionales, se lleva a cabo un análisis comparativo de las redes sociales que más utilizan, para contestar las siguientes preguntas: ¿cómo utilizan las instituciones de auditoría pública europeas los medios de comunicación social? y ¿cuál es el nivel de seguimiento e interacción de sus usuarios? Este trabajo analiza 92 instituciones de auditoría pública europeas: 28 instituciones de auditoría centrales (supreme audit institutions, SAIs), 63 regionales (regional audit institutions, RAIs) y la European Court of Auditors (ECA). Los resultados indican que el nivel de uso de los medios de comunicación social por parte de estas instituciones es reducido, con mayores niveles de adopción en las SAIs, en los territorios con mayor número de habitantes y con estilos de administración pública anglosajón, nórdico y del Este de Europa. Los resultados también muestran que las redes sociales se utilizan principalmente para transmitir información sobre las actividades que realizan y que las publicaciones que buscan mejorar la imagen de las instituciones son las que generan una mayor repercusión en los usuarios. Las publicaciones dirigidas a comenzar un diálogo con los usuarios son las menos frecuentes. Los usuarios interaccionan más en Facebook que en Twitter, siendo los “me gusta” la reacción más común y los comentarios la menos frecuente.
The adoption of businesslike boards of directors in the public sector has to be evaluated in term... more The adoption of businesslike boards of directors in the public sector has to be evaluated in terms of financial and non-financial outcomes. This paper investigates, using a structural equation model, the relationship of certain board characteristics with the performance of English NHS foundation trusts. Larger and more independent boards do not harm performance. Having a woman chairing the board is related to better service quality. Boards seem to be more concerned about service quality issues than about financial problems.
Electronic participation (e-participation) has grown across the world in recent decades and many ... more Electronic participation (e-participation) has grown across the world in recent decades and many governments offer a range of opportunities for e-participation. However, there is a lack of comparative analyses of successful initiatives, which can be useful in supporting subsequent adopters. This study identifies the best practices and areas for improvement of Decide Madrid and We asked, You said, We did in Scotland, whose software has been widely adopted by hundreds of institutions worldwide. Key common enablers include political leadership and senior management support, top-down approach, high levels of internal and external collaboration, embeddedness in the formal policy-making processes, and careful consideration of design features. Most of these factors are related to processes, organizational, or managerial dimensions, rather than being linked to the institutional context or information and communication technologies. Areas for improvement relate to the way the initiatives provide feedback, allow discussion and flexibility on policy options, incorporate possibilities for offline participation, and involve a wider range of stakeholders. An important contribution is the identification of factors contributing to the robustness and continuity of e-participation initiatives, combining the flexibility of collaborative network governance and the stability of public bureaucracy.
This paper analyzes the award-winning e-participation initiative of the city council of Madrid, D... more This paper analyzes the award-winning e-participation initiative of the city council of Madrid, Decide Madrid, to identify the critical success factors and the main barriers that are conditioning its performance. An exploratory case study is used as a research technique, including desk research and semi-structured interviews. The analysis distinguishes contextual, organizational and individual level factors; it considers whether the factors or barriers are more related to the information and communication technology (ICT) component, public sector context or democratic participation; it also differentiates among the different stages of the development of the initiative. Results show that individual and organizational factors related to the public sector context and democratic participation are the most relevant success factors. The high expectations of citizens explain the high levels of participation in the initial stages of Decide Madrid. However, the lack of transparency and poor functioning of some of its participatory activities (organizational factors related to the ICT and democratic dimensions) are negatively affecting its performance. The software created for this platform, Consul, has been adopted or it is in the process of being implemented in more than 100 institutions in 33 countries. Therefore, the findings of this research can potentially be useful to improve the performance and sustainability of e-participation platforms worldwide.
Several authors and international organizations have recommended that public sector Audit Institu... more Several authors and international organizations have recommended that public sector Audit Institutions use social media (SM) to communicate with and engage stakeholders, but the adoption and use of these tools by Audit Institutions has remained unexplored. This paper analyzes the presence of Audit Institutions in Web 2.0 and SM tools, in the EU and US, at regional and central government level, in order to answer the following research questions: What is the level of adoption of Web 2.0 and SM tools among Audit Institutions? Can any patterns of adoption be identified? What factors are related to the adoption of Web 2.0 and SM tools? What is the main objective of the content published? What is the number of followers and the level of citizen awareness? Results show that the adoption of Web 2.0 and SM tools by Audit Institutions is at an initial stage. There are differences in adoption between Supreme and Regional Audit Institutions, among the different public administration styles, and depending on the population size and level of use of SM and previous levels of transparency at country level. This results in predictable patterns of adoption consistent with path dependencies derived from the institutional context and citizen demands. The number of followers and citizens' awareness is generally low and the contents published rarely aim at encouraging stakeholder participation. Based on these findings, theoretical and practical implications are highlighted.
Female chief executive officers (CEOs) of NHS foundation trusts have increased from 37% in 2012/1... more Female chief executive officers (CEOs) of NHS foundation trusts have increased from 37% in 2012/13 to 47% in 2017/18. This paper shows that, in the five-year period analysed, the gender pay gap (GPG) has narrowed to become insignificant. The paper suggests the improvement of female presence and the narrowing of the GPG go hand-in-hand, at least for these public sector top managers. It also provides indication that the GPG is multifaceted, women may sacrifice high salaries for future financial security. Women and men could also be negotiating salaries in a different way, signalling gender traits differences.
Las administraciones públicas publican datos abiertos para su posterior reutilización por la ciud... more Las administraciones públicas publican datos abiertos para su posterior reutilización por la ciudadanía. Además de un evidente impacto en la transparencia, los datos abiertos tienen un importante potencial económico, lo que explica el auge de las iniciativas para su difusión. Cada vez más administraciones deciden crear un portal de datos abiertos y las entidades locales no se han mantenido al margen de esta tendencia. Pocos trabajos empíricos han evaluado este tipo de portales y los análisis son mayoritariamente de tipo cualitativo o se limitan a un número reducido de portales, por lo que no existen pautas generalmente aceptadas para evaluar su implementación. Por ello, la principal contribución de este trabajo es la definición de una metodología para analizar los portales de datos abiertos, así como su aplicación a una muestra de municipios de España, país que está a la vanguardia en reutilización de datos en Europa. Además, se analiza la información económico-financiera que ofrecen los municipios en sus portales de datos abiertos, por ser fundamental para la rendición de cuentas, la lucha contra la corrupción y la evaluación de la sostenibilidad y eficacia de la prestación de servicios públicos. Los resultados muestran que todavía queda mucho por avanzar en este campo. Sólo un 40% de las ciudades analizadas cuentan con un portal de datos abiertos y la puntuación media de la muestra analizada no alcanza el 50%. La mayoría de los portales parecen funcionar como simples repositorios de datos, descuidado aspectos que fomentan la utilización de los datos por parte de un público no experto, la rendición de cuentas, la participación ciudadana y la calidad de los datos suministrados (por ejemplo, definición de metadatos utilizados), por lo que se concluye planteando algunas recomendaciones de mejora.
El uso de redes sociales y otras herramientas de la Web 2.0 ha cobrado gran importancia en el sec... more El uso de redes sociales y otras herramientas de la Web 2.0 ha cobrado gran importancia en el sector público, ya que posibilita una nueva forma de comunicación entre la administración y la ciudadanía. Para conocer su impacto se necesitan métricas y metodologías de análisis apropiadas. Este trabajo ilustra la utilización de diversas métricas de uso de Facebook en el ámbito municipal, tanto por parte de los ayuntamientos como de la ciudadanía, tomando una muestra de ayuntamientos españoles y datos disponibles públicamente. Los resultados muestran que un porcentaje considerable de ayuntamientos no usa Facebook para comunicarse con los ciudadanos. Los ayuntamientos que si usan Facebook solo alcanzan niveles modestos de seguimiento e interacción, no utilizan los medios que más impacto generan en los usuarios, ni los contenidos que generan más repercusión. Por tanto, se pone de manifiesto que las entidades locales deben replantearse sus estrategias de uso de estas herramientas para mejorar la interacción con el ciudadano.
REVISTA DE CONTABILIDAD - SPANISH ACCOUNTING REVIEW, 2019
Ensuring public access to the information that State-Owned Enterprises (SOEs) produce is necessar... more Ensuring public access to the information that State-Owned Enterprises (SOEs) produce is necessary andcorporate websites should be used for this purpose. However, there is a lack of research analyzing the ac-countability of SOEs. This paper aims to identify different accountability patterns among SOEs by carryingout an assessment of the e-disclosure levels of Spanish SOEs. For this purpose, a comprehensive websitecontent analysis of 91 SOEs owned by the Spanish central government was carried out. Each website wasanalyzed for 60 items classified into 4 dimensions: 1) financial information, 2) information about object-ives and strategies, 3) corporate governance and 4) usability. In order to identify different accountabilitypatterns among SOEs, cluster, multidimensional scaling and Pro-Fit analyses were carried out. Resultsshow that e-disclosure practices among Spanish SOEs are still in their infancy. Financial accountabilityis the main focus of SOEs disclosures and most are silent about their policies, objectives and corporategovernance structures. The majority of them are still anchored in a narrow accountability style that onlyconsiders shareholders as the key stakeholders and they are a long way from fulfilling the OECD recommend-ation that they should be as transparent as listed companies. Furthermore, results show that enforcementof transparency-related legislation is scarce in Spain. Based on these findings, some recommendations toimprove e-disclosure practices among SOEs are suggested.
This Special Issue aims to provide knowledge about how citizen participation can promote sustaina... more This Special Issue aims to provide knowledge about how citizen participation can promote sustainable decision-making at the local level, i.e., how citizen participation can promote positive effects on the environmental, social, and economic dimensions at the local level, and what the drivers of and barriers to achieving these positive effects are. The following themes would be of particular interest (NB: this list is not exhaustive): - What is the effect of citizen participation on environmental protection? - How can e-participation promote sustainable decision-making at the local level? - To what extent and how are cities including sustainable development goals (SDG) in their citizen participation strategies? - Are public sector managers adequately considering the three dimensions of sustainable decisionmaking (i.e., the environmental, social, and economic dimensions) when adopting citizen participation at the local level? - Case studies of best practices in citizen participation in sustainable local decision-making.
Performance measures and rewards are becoming commonplace in public sector organizations. This pa... more Performance measures and rewards are becoming commonplace in public sector organizations. This paper studies the implementation of performance-related pay (PRP) mechanisms in the boards of directors of the Foundation Trusts (FTs) of the National Health Service (NHS) in England and analyzes whether their remuneration is linked to organizational performance using qualitative and quantitative analyses (structural equation model). FTs operate in a favorable context for implementing PRP to remunerate executive directors. Our results show that many FTs have not implemented PRP and hardly any report having payed bonuses. However, most of them disclose that they carry out some kind of performance appraisal. These results indicate both reluctance to and difficulties in adopting PRP in public sector entities. Results also suggest that executive directors of NHS FTs are stewards in an “odd” kingdom that uses performance ratings to evaluate organizations, blaming directors when ratings are bad, but with no rewards when good performance is achieved.
The aim of this paper is to study the expectations of environmental senior managers, as experts i... more The aim of this paper is to study the expectations of environmental senior managers, as experts in this field, about the effect of e-participation in the fight against climate change. Their experiences in, and the fulfillment of their expectations about, citizen participation in local government environmental programs have been analyzed through different questionnaires in order to answer the following research questions. What effects can be expected from citizen participation in environmental programs? What conditions are necessary for, and what barriers are there to, successful participation processes? Is e-participation more effective than traditional citizen participation? The results confirm that e-participation is only an enabler of citizen engagement in participation processes, but it does not overcome all the barriers to these processes. The success of citizen participation cannot be guaranteed merely by introducing ICTs. The integration of e-participation with traditional offline tools for citizen participation is needed.
Public administrations need to find innovative approaches to solving changing problems and to ful... more Public administrations need to find innovative approaches to solving changing problems and to fulfilling their duties. Crowdsourcing in local governments could be defined as the use of new technologies in order to take advantage of citizen knowledge to find solutions to municipal problems. This paper analyzes two experiences of crowdsourcing at local level, and the opinions of the citizens and managers involved, to provide an initial assessment of its effectiveness and suggest avenues for improvement. Engaging citizens in e-participation initiatives is a challenge but, for public sector crowdsourcing initiatives, intrinsic motivation and intangible rewards seem to be enough to motivate participants. Results show that managers find citizens’ propositions viable, but publishing the final results and indicating how the ideas selected will be further developed are pending tasks. Caution is needed as failure to deliver the benefits deemed essential by citizens can make them even more reluctant to engage
This study analyzes whether there are any differences in enrollment and drop-out rates between e-... more This study analyzes whether there are any differences in enrollment and drop-out rates between e-participation and traditional participation in a long-term citizen collaboration project. The theoretical framework is based on networked individualism. Results show that capturing and maintaining citizen interest is a daunting task, even in a sensitive topic that might generate positive and tangible benefits for citizens. The higher levels of accessibility offered by information and communication technologies (ICTs) are not enough to reverse public apathy, and person-to-person contact is more effective to maintain engagement. Based on the findings, some actions to reduce dropout in long-term citizen collaboration projects are suggested.
There is a very limited empirical research examining the impact of media and content types on sta... more There is a very limited empirical research examining the impact of media and content types on stakeholders' engagement on social media platforms, and basically none within the public sector. The purpose of this study is to measure the impact of media and content types on stakeholders' engagement on Western European local governments' Facebook pages. The sample includes 15-member countries of the EU via 75 local governments belonging to four different public administration styles, analyzing 50 posts from each municipality. The posts were coded into 16 content types (e.g. environment, housing) and 5 media types (e.g. video, text), respectively. Metrics of popularity, commitment, virality and engagement were also computed for each post. Results show that the most used media types are links and photos. Cultural activities, sports and marketing related topics are the most widely posted by Western European local governments, but these contents do not seem to be the most relevant for citizens. Local governments' preferences to different media and content types seem to depend on the institutional context. Significant differences on engagement levels by citizens have also been found among media and content types and in different institutional contexts. This study provides practitioners and academics with some initial research findings about the effect of different communicational strategies on citizen engagement, which are very important factors in order to improve the effectiveness of e-participation offerings.
The objective of this article is to provide an initial assessment of Facebook use by Western Euro... more The objective of this article is to provide an initial assessment of Facebook use by Western European municipalities considering two aspects: citizens’ engagement and municipalities’ activity. Data on 75 local governments in 15 countries were collected and tested for both government use and citizens’ engagement. Findings show that the use of Facebook by Western European local governments has become commonplace. The audiences of the official Facebook pages are rather high, but citizen engagement in general is low. Activity levels by municipalities and engagement levels by citizens in general terms are not statistically related to municipality characteristics, Facebook page metrics, or the technological readiness of the population. It seems that channel activity is more a decision on the part of local governments than a consequence of citizen demand. This article proposes a methodology that can be used in future research to measure citizen engagement on social media (SM) platforms. Furthermore, this research highlights the importance that local governments attach to clearly establishing the main purpose of their SM accounts to avoid frustration on the part of citizens that can lead to distrust and reduce the chances that citizens will invest their resources, time, and knowledge in participation.
There is widespread acceptance that current institutions are inadequate to address the challenges... more There is widespread acceptance that current institutions are inadequate to address the challenges of sustainable development. At the same time, there is an urgent need to build awareness and increase capacity for promoting action with respect to environmental protection at the local level. This article analyzes the Web sites of the environment departments of European local governments that signed the Aalborg Commitments to determine the extent to which they are using the Internet to promote e-participation in environmental topics and to identify the drivers of these developments. Potential drivers are public administration style, urban vulnerability, external pressures, and local government environmental culture. Findings confirm that e-participation is a multifaceted concept. External pressures influence the transparency of environmental Web sites, while public administration style and local government environmental culture influence their interactivity.
Various authors have highlighted the potential contribution of the internet to enhance the intera... more Various authors have highlighted the potential contribution of the internet to enhance the interactivity, transparency, and openness of public sector entities and to promote new forms of accountability. The search for new styles of governance which promote higher levels of transparency and the engagement of citizens is viewed as a way of improving citizens' trust in governments. As the social media are becoming ubiquitous, both academics and practitioners need some initial and reliable background data about the deployment of this kind of technology at all levels. The aim of this work is to provide an overall view about the use of Web 2.0 and social media tools in EU local governments in order to determine whether local governments are using these technologies to increase transparency and e-participation, opening a real corporate dialog. In addition, the paper tries to identify which factors promote the level of development of these tools at local level. Our results show that most local governments are using Web 2.0 and social media tools to enhance transparency but, in general, the concept of corporate dialog and the use of Web 2.0 to promote e-participation are still in their infancy at the local level.► Most local governments are using Web 2.0 and social media to enhance transparency. ► The use of Web 2.0 to promote e-participation is still in its infancy. ► EU local governments are lagging behind their citizens in the use of the Web 2.0. ► The use of Web 2.0 and social media tools does not depend on citizen demand. ► The use of Web 2.0 is only related to previous e-government levels of development.
This article analyzes how extensively European Union local governments are using their websites t... more This article analyzes how extensively European Union local governments are using their websites to disseminate financial information in order to evaluate whether electronic-government (e-government) is promoting convergence towards more accountable local governments. We also posit and test various hypotheses about the influence of internal and contextual factors on Internet financial reporting (IFR) practices. Results show that the public administration style, the size of the city, and the audit of financial information by private firms are significant explanatory factors of IFR practices. Our findings also suggest that multilateral organizations are overly optimistic about the possible convergence in transparency and financial accountability through the use of common modes of IFR. That is, the introduction of information and communication technologies without the corresponding institutional reform is leading to limited success of IFR.
Los medios de comunicación social y las redes sociales han transformado el modo en el que nos com... more Los medios de comunicación social y las redes sociales han transformado el modo en el que nos comunicamos y cómo se comparte y distribuye la información. Las entidades públicas han apostado fuerte en los últimos años por establecer presencia en estas plataformas, aunque diversos estudios muestran que la utilización de estas tecnologías es, en la mayor parte de los casos, un canal de comunicación unidireccional por parte de la Administración. Esto se debe, en parte, a carencias estratégicas, como el análisis previo de objetivos, recursos necesarios, beneficios y riesgos asociados, y a la falta de procesos de evaluación del éxito o fracaso de estas iniciativas. Este Documento pretende servir de ayuda y orientación sobre la utilización de los medios de comunicación social dentro de las actividades que llevan a cabo las entidades públicas, especialmente las entidades locales, como medio para relacionarse con los ciudadanos y la sociedad en general, destacando la importancia de adoptar un enfoque estratégico en la utilización de estas herramientas.
The objective of this chapter is to provide an initial assessment of Facebook use by Western Euro... more The objective of this chapter is to provide an initial assessment of Facebook use by Western European municipalities considering two aspects: citizens’ engagement and municipalities’ activity. The sample for this study comprises the 15 earliest member countries of the EU represented by the five largest cities of each. Thus, data on 75 local governments are employed to test the following research questions: (1) How are Western European municipalities using Facebook? and (2) How are citizens engaging with their local government by using Facebook? In order to answer these questions, a set of metrics will be used that can help governments interpret and understand their impact in the use of social media. The answers to these questions will help to determine whether the use of social media is indeed increasing citizen participation in local governance. Results show that the use of Facebook by some of the biggest Western European local governments has become commonplace. Thus, the availability of a Facebook page is confirmed as a symbol of modernity and responsiveness, which may be perceived as particularly necessary for political legitimacy, especially in times of crisis. The audiences of the official Facebook pages of Western European municipalities are rather high. But a high number of fans does not automatically mean an engaged audience and citizen engagement, in general, is still low. Therefore, these findings suggest that the interest is limited on the part of citizens in terms of engaging in conversations with local governments.
Local authorities increasingly need to demonstrate the legitimacy of their decisions and to devel... more Local authorities increasingly need to demonstrate the legitimacy of their decisions and to develop effective and appropriate forms of citizen engagement. Previous literature has highlighted many advantages of citizen engagement, but has also acknowledged that authentic public participation is rarely found. This chapter uses different sets of empirical data reflecting the opinions of different stakeholders about e-participation initiatives. We aim to analyze whether citizens are familiar with e-participation tools, what citizens and organizers think about the effectiveness of citizen participation, and, finally, whether there is a perceived effectiveness gap between online and offline (traditional) forms of participation. Results show that, despite a high rate of Internet use, the level of use of e-participation among citizens is quite low. Nevertheless, the opinions of citizens and public sector managers regarding e-participation tend to be positive. As regards perceived effectiveness, some differences exist between citizens’ and managers’ perceptions. Citizens feel that e-participation is less costly and at least as good as offline participation, but it seems that greater changes are achieved through offline participation. Managers tend to agree that online participation is better in reaching a higher number of potential participants, and also in its immediateness and in the lower effort required, whereas offline participation is thought to be better at building social capital.
Intervention studies have shown that eco-feedback is a useful measure leading to a reduction in e... more Intervention studies have shown that eco-feedback is a useful measure leading to a reduction in energy consumption. Eco-feedback is most powerful if it is combined with goal setting, action-relevant information, and social comparison and if it is behaviorally relevant. Carbon dioxide equivalent (CO2e) calculators are eco-feedback systems that are suitable for measuring the carbon balance of individuals and households. They also make it possible to measure the impact of activities aiming to reduce the carbon emissions of individuals by influencing behavior and changes in everyday life routines. Citizens participating in the e2democracy (e2d) project used such a tool over a period of up to 2 years. This chapter reviews the criteria followed to select the CO2e calculator and to adjust it for continuous measurement with various feedback functionalities. The different categories of CO2e measurement are presented, and how consumption, such as kilowatt hours (kWh), is converted into CO2e emissions is explained. The chapter also describes the actual functioning of the calculator, how participants interacted with it and the feedback provided to them. Finally, some challenges, such as the lack of data about emission factors (EFs), interpolation, validation, and comparability, are also discussed.
This chapter analyzes the Web sites of the environment departments of European local government s... more This chapter analyzes the Web sites of the environment departments of European local government signatories of the Aalborg+10 Commitments. It represents an example of evaluating a first category of e-participation, that is, electronic access to information. The aim is to establish the extent to which the signatories make use of the Internet to promote e-participation and environmentally friendly behaviors among their citizens. Our results show that the developments in e-participation are higher in those areas just giving information than in areas of interactive communication. The Internet, as a tool to revitalize the public sphere, is still limited to those countries with higher levels of transparency and a culture of citizen engagement.
The objective of this chapter is to ascertain whether the cooperation of citizens as participants... more The objective of this chapter is to ascertain whether the cooperation of citizens as participants of citizen panels has had a positive impact at collective level by contributing to the achievement of a 2 % annual reduction in the carbon dioxide equivalent (CO2e) emissions in their city or region. This chapter discusses several challenges that emerged in the course of the analysis. These challenges suggest that a combination of different methodological approaches is the best option to assess the ecological impact of the citizen panels on the collective level. Results show that, depending on the kind of calculation, some panels met the reduction targets completely, others partially, and one did not at all. However, reductions in CO2e are the general trend, even in those panels that fail to achieve the target. So, altogether, improvements of the CO2e balances on the collective level have been achieved. An important finding is that the results of the panels (improvements or deteriorations) are the same after 1 year of measuring and after 2 years. So learning results are obtained in a single year and longer climate participation processes do not seem to be suited to achieving further savings, but to preventing relapse.
Proceedings of the Annual Hawaii International Conference on System Science, Jan 2012
Citizens are demanding greater transparency and accountability from their governments, and seek t... more Citizens are demanding greater transparency and accountability from their governments, and seek to participate in shaping the policies that affect their lives. The diffusion of the Internet has raised expectations that electronic tools may increase citizen participation in government decision-making and stop the decline of trust in political institutions. This paper brings together two relevant topics, e-participation and climate change, analyzing the websites of the environment departments of European local governments that have signed the Aalborg+10 commitments, to establish to what extent European local governments are making use of the Internet to promote e-participation and environmental-friendly behaviors among their citizens. Our results show that the developments on e-participation are higher in those areas just giving information than in the areas related to interactivity. The Internet as a tool to revitalize the public sphere is still limited to those countries with higher levels of transparency and a culture of citizen engagement.
Se analiza la interaccion de las instituciones de auditoria publica con los usuarios a traves de ... more Se analiza la interaccion de las instituciones de auditoria publica con los usuarios a traves de los medios de comunicacion social. Ademas de determinar factores explicativos de la adopcion de estos medios por parte de las instituciones de auditoria publica europeas centrales y regionales, se lleva a cabo un analisis comparativo de las redes sociales que mas utilizan, para contestar las siguientes preguntas: ?como utilizan las instituciones de auditoria publica europeas los medios de comunicacion social? y ?cual es el nivel de seguimiento e interaccion de sus usuarios? Este trabajo analiza 92 instituciones de auditoria publica europeas: 28 instituciones de auditoria centrales (supreme audit institutions, SAIs), 63 regionales (regional audit institutions, RAIs) y la European Court of Auditors (ECA). Los resultados indican que el nivel de uso de los medios de comunicacion social por parte de estas instituciones es reducido, con mayores niveles de adopcion en las SAIs, en los territori...
Un reto que plantean actualmente las redes sociales a las instituciones de auditoria publica (Sup... more Un reto que plantean actualmente las redes sociales a las instituciones de auditoria publica (Supreme Audit Institutions, SAIs, y Regional Audit Institutions, RAIs) es la transmision de los resultados y conclusiones de sus informes de auditoria y la interaccion con sus 'stakeholders'. Este trabajo pretende analizar; el nivel de adopcion de las web 2.0 y redes sociales por parte de las instituciones de auditoria publica, la existencia de patrones de adopcion, los factores que pueden influir en la misma, los contenidos publicados y su numero de seguidores.
En el PGC 2007 los activos financieros disponibles para la venta deben valorarse a cierre del eje... more En el PGC 2007 los activos financieros disponibles para la venta deben valorarse a cierre del ejercicio por su valor razonable, permaneciendo en el patrimonio neto los ajustes efectuados a tal efecto hasta que el activo financiero se de de baja o deteriore. En el caso de instrumentos de deuda clasificados en esta categoria, previamente al citado ajuste a valor razonable, es necesario contabilizar los intereses devengados en el periodo mediante el metodo del tipo de interes efectivo. Sin embargo, la norma contable no establece con claridad si el devengo de intereses de cada periodo es el calculado segun el tipo de interes efectivo inicial de la operacion o si, por el contrario, en el devengo de intereses de ejercicios futuros debe considerarse el efecto sobre el tipo de intereses efectivo producido por los ajustes en el valor razonable. Este trabajo aborda el tratamiento contable asociado a ambos enfoques, analizando las principales caracteristicas de cada uno y los efectos sobre los...
Esta tesis profundiza en el conocimiento relativo a la aplicacion y al impacto de las TIC y el go... more Esta tesis profundiza en el conocimiento relativo a la aplicacion y al impacto de las TIC y el gobierno electronico (e-govemment) en administraciones locales y regionales de la UE, y estudia la relacion entre el contexto en el que se desarrollan las iniciativas emprendidas y el grado de desarrollo alcanzado. En la parte empirica de la tesis se aplican varias metodologias para la obtencion de datos primarios (analisis del contenido de paginas web y encuestas a funcionarios responsables de la implementacion de estos proyectos) y diversas tecnicas estadisticas para su analisis. Asimismo, tambien se sugiere por que determinadas entidades locales son mas exitosas en la implementacion de proyectos de e-government, teniendo en cuenta varios factores contextuales que pueden influir en el grado de desarrollo alcanzado. La tesis esta dividida en dos partes. La primera se compone de dos capitulos teoricos que analizan el marco teorico para el estudio del gobierno electronico en las democracias...
El uso de redes sociales y otras herramientas de la Web 2.0 ha cobrado gran importancia en el sec... more El uso de redes sociales y otras herramientas de la Web 2.0 ha cobrado gran importancia en el sector público, ya que posibilita una nueva forma de comunicación entre la administración y la ciudadanía. Para conocer su impacto se necesitan métricas y metodologías de análisis apropiadas. Este trabajo ilustra la utilización de diversas métricas de uso de Facebook en el ámbito municipal, tanto por parte de los ayuntamientos como de la ciudadanía, tomando una muestra de ayuntamientos españoles y datos disponibles públicamente. Los resultados muestran que un porcentaje considerable de ayuntamientos no usa Facebook para comunicarse con los ciudadanos. Los ayuntamientos que si usan Facebook solo alcanzan niveles modestos de seguimiento e interacción, no utilizan los medios que más impacto generan en los usuarios, ni los contenidos que generan más repercusión. Por tanto, se pone de manifiesto que las entidades locales deben replantearse sus estrategias de uso de estas herramientas para mejora...
espanolEl objetivo de este trabajo es evaluar el papel de las paginas web y medios de comunicacio... more espanolEl objetivo de este trabajo es evaluar el papel de las paginas web y medios de comunicacion social en el aumento de la transparencia de tipo financiero en las entidades locales. Esta investigacion analiza 60 ayuntamientos clasificados en 4 niveles de poblacion y combina analisis cuantitativos y cualitativos: un analisis del contenido de paginas web; una exploracion del uso de medios de comunicacion social; y un estudio en profundidad de los contenidos publicados en Facebook y Twitter durante un ano. Los resultados muestran que los municipios espanoles todavia tienen que realizar esfuerzos significativos para aumentar sus niveles de transparencia financiera. La informacion publicada se centra principalmente en cuestiones de tipo presupuestario. El uso de Facebook y Twitter por parte de los municipios esta generalizado. Sin embargo, la utilizacion de estas plataformas para la revelacion de informacion de tipo financiero esta muy poco desarrollada. La mayor parte de los municipi...
La sanidad es uno de los servicios publicos ante el que los ciudadanos muestran una mayor sensibi... more La sanidad es uno de los servicios publicos ante el que los ciudadanos muestran una mayor sensibilidad, ya que constituye un pilar basico del Estado de bienestar. Durante los ultimos anos, numerosos paises han reformado sus sistemas sanitarios para darles una mayor orientacion hacia las necesidades del ciudadano-paciente. Estas reformas pretenden, ademas de mejorar la atencion sanitaria, fortalecer el papel de los ciudadanos y recuperar la confianza de estos en los gobiernos e instituciones publicas. Este trabajo analiza el grado de orientacion al paciente de los sistemas de sanidad publicos en Europa y algunas de las caracteristicas que influyen en este grado de orientacion. Los resultados indican que la orientacion al paciente de los sistemas publicos de sanidad esta relacionada, ademas de con el nivel de gasto en sanidad de cada pais, con el estilo de administracion publica y con el modelo organizativo de la sanidad publica adoptado
Citizens are demanding greater transparency and accountability from their governments, and seek t... more Citizens are demanding greater transparency and accountability from their governments, and seek to participate in shaping the policies that affect their lives. The diffusion of the Internet has raised expectations that electronic tools may increase citizen participation in government decision-making and stop the decline of trust in political institutions. This paper brings together two relevant topics, e-participation and climate change, analyzing the websites of the environment departments of European local governments that have signed the Aalborg+10 commitments, in order to establish to what extent European local governments are making use of the Internet to promote e-participation and environmentally-friendly behaviors among their citizens. Our results show that the developments on e-participation are higher in transparency than interactivity. The Internet as a tool to revitalize the public sphere is still limited to those countries with higher levels of transparency, and penetra...
This paper analyzes the award-winning e-participation initiative of the city council of Madrid, D... more This paper analyzes the award-winning e-participation initiative of the city council of Madrid, Decide Madrid, to identify the critical success factors and the main barriers that are conditioning its performance. An exploratory case study is used as a research technique, including desk research and semi-structured interviews. The analysis distinguishes contextual, organizational and individual level factors; it considers whether the factors or barriers are more related to the information and communication technology (ICT) component, public sector context or democratic participation; it also differentiates among the different stages of the development of the initiative. Results show that individual and organizational factors related to the public sector context and democratic participation are the most relevant success factors. The high expectations of citizens explain the high levels of participation in the initial stages of Decide Madrid. However, the lack of transparency and poor ...
Abstract Several authors and international organizations have recommended that public sector Audi... more Abstract Several authors and international organizations have recommended that public sector Audit Institutions use social media (SM) to communicate with and engage stakeholders, but the adoption and use of these tools by Audit Institutions has remained unexplored. This paper analyzes the presence of Audit Institutions in Web 2.0 and SM tools, in the EU and US, at regional and central government level, in order to answer the following research questions: What is the level of adoption of Web 2.0 and SM tools among Audit Institutions? Can any patterns of adoption be identified? What factors are related to the adoption of Web 2.0 and SM tools? What is the main objective of the content published? What is the number of followers and the level of citizen awareness? Results show that the adoption of Web 2.0 and SM tools by Audit Institutions is at an initial stage. There are differences in adoption between Supreme and Regional Audit Institutions, among the different public administration styles, and depending on the population size and level of use of SM and previous levels of transparency at country level. This results in predictable patterns of adoption consistent with path dependencies derived from the institutional context and citizen demands. The number of followers and citizens' awareness is generally low and the contents published rarely aim at encouraging stakeholder participation. Based on these findings, theoretical and practical implications are highlighted.
ABSTRACT Female chief executive officers (CEOs) of NHS foundation trusts have increased from 37% ... more ABSTRACT Female chief executive officers (CEOs) of NHS foundation trusts have increased from 37% in 2012/13 to 47% in 2017/18. This paper shows that, in the five-year period analysed, the gender pay gap (GPG) has narrowed to become insignificant. The paper suggests the improvement of female presence and the narrowing of the GPG go hand-in-hand, at least for these public sector top managers. It also provides indication that the GPG is multifaceted, women may sacrifice high salaries for future financial security. Women and men could also be negotiating salaries in a different way, signalling gender traits differences. IMPACT For CEOs of NHS foundation trusts gender parity has been reached. In this context over a five-year period (2013–2018), salary differences between female and male CEOs have narrowed to an insignificant level. Results suggest that shattering the glass ceiling helps to reduce the GPG, and hence gender inequalities. However, the study also provides original insights into different components of the GPG: salary and pension benefits and the interplay of female risk aversion. Political leaders must take a wide perspective on pay when considering how to achieve their espoused aims of removing gender inequality.
Ensuring public access to the information that State-Owned Enterprises (SOEs) produce is necessar... more Ensuring public access to the information that State-Owned Enterprises (SOEs) produce is necessary and corporate websites should be used for this purpose. However, there is a lack of research analyzing the accountability of SOEs. This paper aims to identify different accountability patterns among SOEs by carrying out an assessment of the e-disclosure levels of Spanish SOEs. For this purpose, a comprehensive website content analysis of 91 SOEs owned by the Spanish central government was carried out. Each website was analyzed for 60 items classified into 4 dimensions: 1) financial information, 2) information about objectives and strategies, 3) corporate governance and 4) usability. In order to identify different accountability patterns among SOEs, cluster, multidimensional scaling and Pro-Fit analyses were carried out. Results show that e-disclosure practices among Spanish SOEs are still in their infancy. Financial accountability is the main focus of SOEs’ disclosures and most are sil...
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Research Articles by Sonia Royo
be negotiating salaries in a different way, signalling gender traits differences.
de portales y los análisis son mayoritariamente de tipo cualitativo o se limitan a un número reducido de portales, por lo
que no existen pautas generalmente aceptadas para evaluar su implementación. Por ello, la principal contribución de este trabajo es la definición de una metodología para analizar los portales de datos abiertos, así como su aplicación a una muestra de municipios de España, país que está a la vanguardia en reutilización de datos en Europa. Además, se analiza
la información económico-financiera que ofrecen los municipios en sus portales de datos abiertos, por ser fundamental para la rendición de cuentas, la lucha contra la corrupción y la evaluación de la sostenibilidad y eficacia de la prestación de servicios públicos. Los resultados muestran que todavía queda mucho por avanzar en este campo. Sólo un 40% de las ciudades analizadas cuentan con un portal de datos abiertos y la puntuación media de la muestra analizada no alcanza el 50%. La mayoría de los portales parecen funcionar como simples repositorios de datos, descuidado aspectos que fomentan la utilización de los datos por parte de un público no experto, la rendición de cuentas, la participación ciudadana y la calidad de los datos suministrados (por ejemplo, definición de metadatos utilizados), por lo que se concluye planteando algunas recomendaciones de mejora.
Este trabajo ilustra la utilización de diversas métricas de uso de Facebook en el ámbito municipal, tanto por parte de los ayuntamientos como de la ciudadanía, tomando una muestra de ayuntamientos españoles y datos
disponibles públicamente. Los resultados muestran que un porcentaje considerable de ayuntamientos no usa Facebook para comunicarse con los ciudadanos. Los ayuntamientos que si usan Facebook solo alcanzan
niveles modestos de seguimiento e interacción, no utilizan los medios que más impacto generan en los usuarios, ni los contenidos que generan más repercusión. Por tanto, se pone de manifiesto que las entidades locales deben replantearse sus estrategias de uso de estas herramientas para mejorar la interacción con el ciudadano.
are. The following themes would be of particular interest (NB: this list is not exhaustive):
- What is the effect of citizen participation on environmental protection?
- How can e-participation promote sustainable decision-making at the local level?
- To what extent and how are cities including sustainable development goals (SDG) in their citizen participation strategies?
- Are public sector managers adequately considering the three dimensions of sustainable decisionmaking (i.e., the environmental, social, and economic dimensions) when adopting citizen participation at the local level?
- Case studies of best practices in citizen participation in sustainable local decision-making.
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be negotiating salaries in a different way, signalling gender traits differences.
de portales y los análisis son mayoritariamente de tipo cualitativo o se limitan a un número reducido de portales, por lo
que no existen pautas generalmente aceptadas para evaluar su implementación. Por ello, la principal contribución de este trabajo es la definición de una metodología para analizar los portales de datos abiertos, así como su aplicación a una muestra de municipios de España, país que está a la vanguardia en reutilización de datos en Europa. Además, se analiza
la información económico-financiera que ofrecen los municipios en sus portales de datos abiertos, por ser fundamental para la rendición de cuentas, la lucha contra la corrupción y la evaluación de la sostenibilidad y eficacia de la prestación de servicios públicos. Los resultados muestran que todavía queda mucho por avanzar en este campo. Sólo un 40% de las ciudades analizadas cuentan con un portal de datos abiertos y la puntuación media de la muestra analizada no alcanza el 50%. La mayoría de los portales parecen funcionar como simples repositorios de datos, descuidado aspectos que fomentan la utilización de los datos por parte de un público no experto, la rendición de cuentas, la participación ciudadana y la calidad de los datos suministrados (por ejemplo, definición de metadatos utilizados), por lo que se concluye planteando algunas recomendaciones de mejora.
Este trabajo ilustra la utilización de diversas métricas de uso de Facebook en el ámbito municipal, tanto por parte de los ayuntamientos como de la ciudadanía, tomando una muestra de ayuntamientos españoles y datos
disponibles públicamente. Los resultados muestran que un porcentaje considerable de ayuntamientos no usa Facebook para comunicarse con los ciudadanos. Los ayuntamientos que si usan Facebook solo alcanzan
niveles modestos de seguimiento e interacción, no utilizan los medios que más impacto generan en los usuarios, ni los contenidos que generan más repercusión. Por tanto, se pone de manifiesto que las entidades locales deben replantearse sus estrategias de uso de estas herramientas para mejorar la interacción con el ciudadano.
are. The following themes would be of particular interest (NB: this list is not exhaustive):
- What is the effect of citizen participation on environmental protection?
- How can e-participation promote sustainable decision-making at the local level?
- To what extent and how are cities including sustainable development goals (SDG) in their citizen participation strategies?
- Are public sector managers adequately considering the three dimensions of sustainable decisionmaking (i.e., the environmental, social, and economic dimensions) when adopting citizen participation at the local level?
- Case studies of best practices in citizen participation in sustainable local decision-making.
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