E-government implementation evaluation : opening the black Box

This paper perceives e-government evaluation as a research field that can produce the cognitive input to help us understand the causal nexus that should attribute the effects of an e-government programme to its implementation and transform this learning into an effective intervention tool. Drawing on contributions from Organization Theory and Policy Studies, we propose an interpretive key that assigns a dual role to e-government evaluation: valuable cognitive resource and tool of accountability for the policymakers. The reflections offered here are based on an exploratory case study of a City of Milan project and aim to provide further insights for e-government research and help better inform managerial praxis