Benefits Realization in eGovernment: Institutional Entrepreneurship or Just Hype?

As development practices of eGovernment gradually mature, there appears to be an increasing focus on documentation of innovation processes and documentation of realized benefits. Although research on benefits realization provides some guidance to these issues, there is a lack of empirical research to validate central tenets in the literature and to provide the level of detail necessary to understand the impact benefits realization practices can have on organizations. To address these issues, we carried out an in-depth longitudinal case study of a large-scale benefits realization effort in Norway. Institutional theory was used to analyze the organizational impact. Our findings show that the work with benefits realization has had considerable organizational impact that is seen as positive for the realization of benefits. However, important issues such as stakeholder engagement and governance still need to be further addressed. Our study provides new insights concerning benefits realization processes in government and a theoretical perspective that can be further developed.