Service, Openness and Engagement as Digitally-Based Enablers of Public Value?

Public value creation is increasingly viewed as a central pivot of a government's digital transformation. The objective of this article is twofold: to better understand some of the major inhibitors of public value creation within a context of digital government, and to offer some fresh insight into how such inhibitors may be overcome in order to strengthen public value creation by leveraging digital governance innovation. In pursuing this objective, the author adopts the Government of Canada as a broad, qualitative and exploratory case study of digital government's capacities to generate public value. These findings reveal many structural and cultural inhibitors within the Government of Canada to innovation and public value creation across the inter-related realms of service, openness and engagement. How inhibitors can be addressed and eventually overcome is also discussed as a basis for future public sector reform and academic and applied research.