An empirical study of the role of e-government benchmarking in China

Article type: Research Article

Authors: Schlæger, Jesper

Affiliations: Centre for East and South-East Asian Studies, Lund University, Scheelevägen 15, 223 70 Lund, Sweden. Tel.: +46 462223005; E-mail: slg@scu.edu.cn

Abstract: The topic of this paper is the role of benchmarking in Chinese e-government. Through content analysis of documentary material, this paper addresses the following questions: Which benchmarking schemes have been applied to e-government in China? What are the intentions behind the different benchmarking schemes? and Whose interests are served? Whereas previous research finds that benchmarking addresses mainly the front office of e-government (websites), this paper finds that organizational indicators are also used. Benchmarking efforts now increasingly address the back office, and basic benchmarking schemes have become institutionalized into a census. Benchmarking reinforces the interests of the central government and communicates the values of the Communist Party to the fragmented bureaucracy. In this way, benchmarking is used as an integrative mechanism that centralizes governance while maintaining adaptive capacity at the local level.

Keywords: E-government, benchmarking, China, performance management, internet, fragmented authoritarianism

DOI: 10.3233/IP-160399

Journal: Information Polity, vol. 21, no. 4, pp. 383-397, 2016