An Empirical Analysis of the Perceived Usefulness of Digital Governance Tools among Heterogeneous Swiss Municipalities

Abstract

Digital governance tools have the potential to enable more efficient and less error-prone governance processes. However, the heterogeneity among municipalities might affect their willingness and purposes to use such tools, for which we have limited evidence. This study analyzes results from a survey among Swiss municipalities with different population sizes, focusing on their evaluation and prioritization of digital governance tools. The results show that for some governance areas, such as strategy formation & monitoring and project portfolio management, the perceived usefulness of these tools increases with municipality size, while the perceived use of them for data collection is generally lower. Smaller municipalities are more likely to reject new digital governance tools, with a general skepticism of the usefulness and the financial situation indicated as the most common reasons. Medium to large municipalities show additional reasons for the rejection, rooted in their more prevalent previous or current use of digital tools.