Digital Service Maturity: Development of an e-Cohesion-Specific Model

Abstract

This paper presents a new approach to measure the impacts of e-government concepts on the reduction of administrative burdens, in the domain of European fund management. The present European legislation specifies that Member States shall provide online portal services for beneficiaries to reduce the administrative burdens of cohesion policy. This concept is marked with the term “e-Cohesion” in the scientific discourse. Based on former studies, the concept has several attributes that leverage its impact on burden reduction. Nevertheless, the level of their influence has not been underpinned by evidence-based research yet. The present paper has three main aims. First, to present the methodology and findings of an international research on the capabilities and impacts of e-Cohesion portals. Second, to evaluate the relevance of the above attributes based on these findings. Third, to make suggestions for the development of an e-Cohesion specific maturity model to measure the effectiveness of electronic portals.