Innovation: a factor explaining e-government success in Estonia

Estonia is seen as a remarkable success story in the context of e-government. Several studies that have mapped the major factors affecting the evolution of e-government in Estonia are mainly grounded in information systems theory; even if competencies of the private sector and public-private partnerships are examined, their treatment remains too general. The current article argues for the importance of the innovation system approach and public procurement for innovation—examining what has widely taken place, namely, the purchasing of e-government solutions that did not yet exist at the time but that were developed within a reasonable period. Several technological risks related to public procurement for innovation were avoided due to the high competencies of local suppliers, a lack of legacy infrastructure, and a supportive environment for ‘ethical hackers’. The importance of the framework and the success factors is illustrated by a case study on e-voting.