Abstract
E-Government evaluation and improvement face significant challenges, particularly when broader aspects of government quality and user satisfaction are considered. Complexity increases due to the interplay between national and local solutions, which can make it difficult for users to recognize portal boundaries and assign responsibility for service quality.
The Government as a Platform (GaaP) paradigm provides a valuable framework for understanding platform ecosystems that address citizens’ needs by combining centralized functionalities with decentralized service delivery. While platform environments can foster innovation and generate public value, they also blur lines of responsibility between national platform owners and local service providers, creating new challenges for public governance and accountability.
This study examines the impact of national identity verification systems on user satisfaction with local e-Government portals. Using survey data from South Tyrol, Italy — analyzed both quantitatively using structural equation modeling and qualitatively through content analysis — it explores how modern digital identity procedures affect users’ perceptions of local digital services.
The findings offer empirical insights into user satisfaction within multilevel platform systems and identify intervention points for local portal owners operating under GaaP architectures. In doing so, the study contributes to ongoing debates in public administration by proposing a user-centered approach to evaluating service delivery in shared digital governance frameworks.