Channel choice complications:Exploring the multiplex nature of citizens' channel choices

Part 2: E-Government Services and Open GovernmentInternational audienceIn spite of massive investment and increased adoption of digital services, citizens continue to use traditional channels to interact with public organizations. The channel choice (CC) field of research tries to understand citizens’ interactions with public authorities to make the interaction more efficient and increase citizen satisfaction. However, most studies have been conducted either as surveys of hypothetical services or in experimental settings, leading to a lack of empirical data from actual use contexts. Therefore, we present the results of a sequential mixed methods study which combines observations of citizen-caseworker interaction in a call center, contextual interviews with callers, and a survey classifying topics from 10,000 telephone calls. We contribute to the CC field and practice with rich empirical data from studies of actual channel choices. Specifically, the study explores the multiplex nature of real-life CC and demonstrate how telephone calls can be part of a process, which occurs across both traditional and digital channels. Moreover, we identify problems, which cause telephone calls related to digital services, and classify these in two groups: information related problems and action related problems

The effects of having more than one good reputation on distributor investments in the film industry

Reputations of organizations and its individual members are valuable resources that help new organizations to get access to investment capital. Reputations, however, can have different dimensions. In this paper, we argue that an individual’s reputation along a particular dimension will have a positive effect on the behavior of investors when it is role congruent. In addition, we argue that also scoring favorably on the role-incongruent dimension at the same time—or, in other words, engaging in reputational category spanning—will weaken the positive effect of the role-congruent reputation. Our empirical setting is the film industry where we study the effect of the two main dimensions of reputation in cultural industries, artistic and commercial, of both directors and producers on the size of the investment by distributors. In this study, artistic reputation is based on professional critics’ reviews and commercial reputation on box office performance of the films in which individuals were involved in the past. We find that the commercial reputation of a film producer based on past box office performance has a positive effect on the size of the investment by film distributors. In addition, we find that directors who at the same time combine both a favorable commercial as well as an artistic reputation actually receive a lower investment from film distributors

Lawson criterion for ignition exceeded in an inertial fusion experiment

For more than half a century, researchers around the world have been engaged in attempts to achieve fusion ignition as a proof of principle of various fusion concepts. Following the Lawson criterion, an ignited plasma is one where the fusion heating power is high enough to overcome all the physical processes that cool the fusion plasma, creating a positive thermodynamic feedback loop with rapidly increasing temperature. In inertially confined fusion, ignition is a state where the fusion plasma can begin "burn propagation" into surrounding cold fuel, enabling the possibility of high energy gain. While "scientific breakeven" (i.e., unity target gain) has not yet been achieved (here target gain is 0.72, 1.37 MJ of fusion for 1.92 MJ of laser energy), this Letter reports the first controlled fusion experiment, using laser indirect drive, on the National Ignition Facility to produce capsule gain (here 5.8) and reach ignition by nine different formulations of the Lawson criterion

New Channels, New Possibilities:A typology and classification of social robots and their role in multi-channel public service delivery

Part 2: Service DeliveryInternational audienceIn this contribution we discuss the characteristics of what we call the fourth generation of public sector service channels: social robots. Based on a review of relevant literature we discuss their characteristics and place into multi-channel models of service delivery. We argue that social robots is not one homogenous type of channels, but rather breaks down in different (sub)types of channels, each with different characteristics and possibilities to supplement and/or replace existing channels. Given the variety of channels, we foresee challenges in incorporating these new channels in multi-channel models of service delivery. This is especially relevant given the current lack of evaluations of such models, the broad range of channels available, and their different stages of deployment at governments around the world. Nevertheless, social robots offer an potentially very relevant addition to the service level landscape

Digital by Default: The Use of Service Channels by Citizens

Part 5: Smart CitiesInternational audienceThe use of information and communication technologies by governments is increasing, in many cases to establish new channels of interaction with citizens; and digital by default has been presented as a guide for the development of electronic services. This article discusses the possibility of creating new exclusion forms and is based on the analysis of the profile of use of service channels SP156 of the São Paulo City. To do so, it uses databases of service requests, made available through the City’s Open Data Portal, as well as sociodemographic data from the city’s districts. It was verified that there is a statistically significant correlation between the average monthly income level of the districts and the type of channel used by the citizen to make the requests. It is concluded that it is important to provide multiple channels for citizens to interact with governments so as not to lead to further social exclusion

Time to Refuel the Conceptual Discussion on Public e-Services : Revisiting How e-Services Are Manifested in Practice

There are various models and frameworks describing the nature of e-services in the public sector. Many of these models are based on previous conceptualizations and have evolved over time, but are first and foremost conceptual creations with weak empirical grounding. In the meantime, practitioners in the field have continued to further develop e-services, and new advancements in technology have enabled new solutions for e-services. In the light of advancements in practice, and the limitations seen in current conceptual work concerning public e-services, we identify a need to refuel the conceptual discussion on e-services in the public sector by empirically investigating how e-services can be manifested in practice. The aim of this paper is to illustrate the possible variations of e-services in practice, and to discuss this variation in relation to the conceptual representation of the phenomenon. Based on qualitative interviews with employees involved with e-service development and provision at a large governmental agency, we illustrate that an ‘e-service’ can take on many different forms within an organization; ranging from downloadable forms, to complicated self-service systems that require expertise knowledge and IT-systems with specific processing capacity. The notion that all services mediated through a website can be understood under one general umbrella term, without further categorization, needs to be challenged

Integrated Popular Reporting as a Tool for Citizen Involvement in Financial Sustainability Decisions

The more information that is disseminated about the financial impact of government decisions, the more public sector entities are stimulated to make decisions in a transparent manner. Several tools can be used to involve citizens in financial sustainability decisions; among these, popular reporting is receiving growing attention in the public sector. The goal of popular reporting is to engage the interest of average citizens and make it easy for them to understand financial sustainability, by presenting more information than traditional financial reporting, in a concise, comprehensive, and attractive manner. For these reasons, government entities should consider implementing integrated popular reporting. This chapter aims to present a prototype integrated popular report designed to promote citizen participation in financial sustainability decisions. Through a theoretical-deductive methodology, it aims to identify the main features that an integrated popular report should contain to best respond to the information needs of public sector user groups, focusing on citizens in particular