A Synthesised Stage Model for Collaborative Public Service Platforms

Collaboration between government, the private sector and citizens is deemed critical to further improve the quality and effectiveness of public services. However, the stage models describing and guiding the development of e-government do not or only rarely cover external collaboration for improving public services. The authors argue that this gap can be filled by including insights from literature on the evolution of platforms, which can serve as a medium for collaboration between public and private parties. This paper aims to synthesise e-government maturity models and platform development models to act as a guide to move from government-centred public service improvement to collaborative innovations by government, businesses and citizens. The result is a platform development model with five stages. To see how the model holds in practice, three cases are investigated. The authors find that their model shows promise but also requires further evaluation and refinement.