Why capability matters more than platform use: Human-centered digital governance and climate resilience in urban Indonesia

Abstract

This study examines the mechanisms through which e-government platforms support perceived climate resilience among urban platform users in Indonesia, and what these mechanisms imply for open innovation in governance. Using a convergent mixed-methods design, we combined a cross-sectional survey of 200 platform users across Jakarta, Yogyakarta, and Surakarta with 15 semi-structured interviews. The quantitative strand applied partial least squares structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM) to a path framework grounded in the Capability Approach and Socio-Technical Systems Theory; the qualitative strand applied structured thematic analysis. Governance Characteristics were strongly associated with Knowledge and Capabilities (β = 0.592, p < .001), which in turn predicted both Use of E-Government (β = 0.358, p < .001) and perceived Climate Resilience (β = 0.377, p < .001). Use of E-Government showed a smaller positive association with Climate Resilience (β = 0.205, p = .006). The dominant indirect pathway from Governance Characteristics to Climate Resilience operated through Knowledge and Capabilities (β = 0.223, p < .001), with a smaller serial pathway through Use of E-Government (β = 0.044, p = .022); the non-significant direct path is consistent with indirect-only mediation. Interview findings indicate that platforms function primarily as information and hazard-monitoring tools, with timeliness, trust, clarity, accessibility, and availability shaping the conversion of information into adaptive action. Hazard temporality matters: timeliness is judged adequate for slow-onset weather events but inadequate for rapid-onset seismic events. The study advances a human-centered digital governance framework in which e-government operates as a capability-building governance instrument embedded in wider socio-technical conditions, with the Capability Approach providing the evaluative space.