Digital transformation has many benefits for public governance, including increased transparency and accountability, better access to government data, better government services, and improved operations (Ferraris et al., 2020; Mikalef et al., 2023). At the same time, empirical evidence reveals that public organizations lack the administrative skills, resources, and technological expertise to digitally transform (Desouza et al., 2020; Ferraris et al., 2020; Neumann et al., 2022). As a result, the digital transformation of the public sector is progressing slowly.

Recently, studies have found that innovation labs can successfully address the growing needs of organizations for digital transformation (Osorio et al., 2019; Santarsiero et al., 2022). Innovation labs are independent organizational settings that aim to facilitate the development of innovative products, services, and business models (Fecher et al., 2020; Tõnurist et al., 2017). Public organizations increasingly embrace innovation labs as a means of digital transformation, but empirical evidence on how these labs contribute to the digital transformation of the public sector is scarce. In the present study, we build on dynamic capabilities theory to answer the research question: How do innovation labs support the digital transformation of public organizations?

To address this question, we identify 50 innovation labs in public organizations in the Netherlands that focus on generating value from data. We empirically investigate how these labs contribute to public organizations' digital transformation. Our analysis is focused on understanding the role of innovation labs by drawing on executives' lived experiences with digitization projects adopted by innovation labs (Gioia et al., 2013). This study identifies: (1) the reasons for public organizations to use innovation labs for digital transformation, (2) the capabilities innovation labs need to explore digital transformation opportunities, (3) the capabilities innovation labs need to capitalize on these opportunities, and (4) the effect innovation labs have on public organizations' digital transformation. Taken together, these insights reveal how innovation labs contribute to the digital transformation of the public sector.

This study's empirical findings enrich the debate about the digital transformation of the public sector by revealing how public organizations can effectively structure and manage innovation labs and by showing how these labs contribute to the digital transformation of the public sector. From a practical perspective, this study provides guidance for public organizations' digital transformation by identifying common pitfalls and best practices in managing innovation labs.

This article aims to identify user profiles for the development and use of e-participation tools. The user profiles were derived based on a representative sample.

The development of digital platforms is user-centric and often based on so-called personas. Personas are usually employed in the early stages of software development as the basis for the user guidance in a platform or tool. In addition to personas, user profiles can be used in developing software. Both concepts rely on information such as socio-demographic characteristics, interests, and goals, but the data basis is different in each case. User profiles are based on a quantitative collection of analytics data to create different profiles based on user behaviour, whereas a persona describes an individual person rather than a representative user group. Neither personas nor user profiles are tested as to their theoretical assumptions or their representativeness regarding the target population. Thus, this is not an ideal basis for software development.

Our quantitative approach represents an alternative. Based on a data set, we create user profiles that explain the use of online and non-digital participation in the public sector and facilitate user-centric software development. To create user profiles, we use model-based clustering designed around mixture models. This generation of clustering methods derives the partition of the data from an estimated statistical model, thereby enabling statements of uncertainty about the resulting classification.

In our case, the data was collected from a survey conducted in Switzerland. Based on this sample, we formulated general statements on participation in the public sector demonstrating the added value of a data-based approach. Five participation types of user profiles could be identified: digital profile, non-digital profile, two mixed forms, and participation refusers. Our findings also enabled us to recommend the best fit between a user profile and e-participation.

Agile development in government procedures require certain legal background and support, while traditional legal structure and elements are not well-prepared for agility, mostly because of the nature of the law.

The paper, thus, first explores the nature of traditional legal system, which is the basis of modern public administration, thus, public service organizations, through literature reviews (Clair Law Farm, 2023; Monolith Law Office, 2023) and analysis of well-known cases in the field. There are exceptions to let the public service organizations work in agile ways, such as recent cases in relation to COVID-19 pandemic; however, these are just exceptions under the rigid legal structure, in the name of crisis. So, the paper tries to capture “usual operations” rather than exceptional situations.

Second, the paper examines several cases, in which the legal system has been “adjusted” in relation to the issues and/or cases. Indeed, to consider “agile public service”, it is necessary to explore the legal and institutional possibilities and potentials, which “worked” under certain circumstances. The paper explores several situations (conditions) under the COVID-19 pandemic in Japan, which “bypassed” the traditional legal structure in the name of public health crisis; but then had worked much better than other countries and regions. Besides, the paper explores more traditional cases, such as “Structural Reform” and “Sandbox Projects” with their policy and legal evaluations.

Lastly, the paper summarises the legal issues of agile procedures in public sector, in comparison to the private sector, to draw some proposals for public sector.