Purpose: One impediment of e-government implementation is the lack of e-(government) competences among public officials, especially because foundational education programs fail to teach them. Therefore, this study suggests massive open online course (MOOC)-based continuous education. It aims to design and evaluate a MOOC and MOOC platform for acquiring e-competence in the public sector and principles for such platforms to capture their inherent design knowledge. Design/methodology/approach: The study uses design science research incorporating qualitative and quantitative methods and draws on established patterns of formulating design principles (DPs). Findings: The core results are a physically instantiated MOOC platform and six DPs: DP of 1) easy access and easy use, 2) professional exchange, 3) protected space, 4) domain focus, 5) cooperation with higher education institutions and 6) promotion from higher government level. Research limitations/implications: This study contributes to e-government research by extending the design knowledge for the construction of domain-specific MOOC platforms. Moreover, the study contributes to platform economics by discussing existing theses and outlining new opportunities. The research also entails limitations, as the authors have solely considered MOOCs and neglected complimentary offers to sustain learning success. Practical implications: This study provides practitioners with design principles they can use in their efforts to construct education platforms for the public sector. Moreover, the study presents a working MOOC platform instantiating these DPs, and thus provides an exemplary reference. Social implications: Not fulfilling expectations regarding digital public services comes with a risk of decreasing trust in public organizations and the overall government. The results of this study contribute to enabling public officials fulfilling stakeholders' expectations and generating public value. Originality/value: By linking e-government competence education with MOOC platform design, this research approximates an important research gap. Scholars previously investigated e-competences and focused on alone-standing MOOCs to convey those. The results of this study offer the potential to construct platforms to centralize such fragmented solutions, maximizing their impact among public officials.

To meet the rising demand for e-government, the so-called e-competences are a crucial building block, enabling public officials to push digitalization efforts forward. One exemplary, highly relevant competence is BPM. It is yet unclear to which degree such competences are already available and which adjustments to the educational settings have to be implemented to ensure their proper distribution. To gain insights into this highly relevant topic, we conducted a large-scale survey with 713 respondents, complemented by five in-depth interviews with public officials. In line with previous research, we found that e-competences, especially in BPM, are still scarce despite the widely acknowledged need. Based on our data sample, both traditional offline and online teaching provide many beneficial aspects. However, each mode alone does not fully cater to the needs outlined by our respondents. Hence, we argue for putting more focus on the establishment of blended learning scenarios.

The importance of digital labour platforms as brokers for digital labour has grown in recent years. Despite some efforts that categorise sub-areas of the gig economy and digital labour platforms, there is yet to be an established generalised view on the characteristics to drill down into related topics. To provide this holistic view and reduce ambiguity as well as competing characterisations, we structure a multitude of characteristics of Digital Labour Platforms that have been explored in previous research. More precisely, we develop a taxonomy following the methodology by Kundisch et al. (2022). The synthesised taxonomy, iteratively constructed in three cycles, consists of 13 dimensions and 36 characteristics embellished with characteristics of 51 analysed Digital Labour Platforms and concepts from literature. We furthermore demonstrate the taxonomy on three exemplary platforms and highlight how existing taxonomies relate to our proposed characterisation and artefact.

Digital transformation is a complex yet indispensable endeavor for SMEs. Hence, SMEs initiate and implement digital innovation projects to drive their digital transformation but face difficulties in the initiation phase, which could lead them to embark on projects with little value. As a remedy, SMEs may collaborate with external digital innovation units to support their project initiations. However, underlying project characteristics are often poorly understood, so much so that initiations often happen ad hoc. The research goal of this article is to develop a taxonomy that supports the initiation of digital innovation projects in SMEs in collaboration with external digital innovation units. The taxonomy development combines both conceptual and empirical perspectives. The former is informed by a structured literature review. The latter emerges from analyzing 210 project reports of German SMEs. The resulting taxonomy comprises 10 dimensions and 30 characteristics. Based on the taxonomy and the analyzed projects, 5 project types are derived by using cluster analysis methods. External digital innovation units can use the taxonomy and the 5 project types to classify and better understand digital innovation projects in SMEs. The article contributes to the body of knowledge and facilitates future research on digital innovation projects in SMEs.

Given the public officials' importance in public sector digitalization, e-government-competence education must be designed in accordance with their individual needs. Only by fostering e-government-competences, or short, e-competences, can they actively participate in the transformative process. Although the importance of e-competences is evident, the landscape of education and continuous education offers does not address the diversity of requirements of the public sector's workforce. Therefore, enabling public administrations to provide their workforce with appropriate continuous education is imperative. The present study sheds light on the parameters public officials apply to assess the appropriateness of a given continuous education offer for their individual situation. To achieve these insights, we conducted an in-depth interview study with a subsequent qualitative content analysis, utilizing eleven semi-structured interviews with members of the German public sector. Upon the interview results, we discovered the parameters and constructed an Entity-Relationship-Model reflecting them for future use in continuous education systems.