Enterprise Systems in the Public Sector: A Literature Review

Abstract

Despite a huge repository of work on enterprise systems (ES) that are widely used across different industries in the private sector, there is a scarcity of publications on this topic in the context of the public sector. Moreover, an assessment about the current research landscape on ES in the context of the public sector is virtually nonexistent. In this study, we address this gap by reviewing 31 academic papers on ES in the public sector. In our analysis, we examine the research focus, research approach and theoretical foundation. Then, by synthesizing the recommendations for the prospective projects, we propose several promising avenues for the future research. Overall, our literature review confirms that this research stream is still in its early stage and much more research efforts need to be dedicated.

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Enterprise Systems in the Public Sector: A Literature Review Enterprise Systems in the Public Sector: A Literature Review
Narcyz Roztocki
SUNY New Paltz
, roztockn@newpaltz.edu
Wojciech Strzelczyk
Kozminski University
, wstrzelczyk@kozminski.edu.pl
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(2020).
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ES in the Public Sector: A Literature Review
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Enterprise Systems in the Public Sector:
A Literature Review
Completed Research
Narcyz Roztocki
State University of New York at New Paltz,
Kozminski University
roztockn@newpaltz.edu
Wojciech Strzelczyk
Kozminski University
wstrzelczyk@kozminski.edu.pl
Abstract
Despite a huge repository of work on enterprise systems (ES) that are widely used across different
industries in the private sector, there is a scarcity of publications on this topic in the context of the public
sector. Moreover, an assessment about the current research landscape on ES in the context of the public
sector is virtually nonexistent. In this study, we address this gap by reviewing 31 academic papers on ES in
the public sector. In our analysis, we examine the research focus, research approach and theoretical
foundation. Then, by synthesizing the recommendations for the prospective projects, we propose several
promising avenues for the future research. Overall, our literature review confirms that this research
stream is still in its early stage and much more research efforts need to be dedicated.
Keywords
Enterprise Systems, ES, Enterprise Resources Planning, ERP, public administration, public sector.
Introduction
Enterprise Systems (ES) are powerful information systems for handling various organizational functions
(Chou and Chang 2008). At the executive level, ES provides decision makers with access to organizational
data, such as accounting and financial records, human resource data, information about operations and
customers (Roztocki et al. 2020). At the managerial level, ES provides middle managers with
organizational data needed for their planning, directing and controlling responsibilities. At the
operational level, ES adoption forces organizations to handle their business activities in a more efficient
way by tracking industry practices and applying a Business Process Management (BPM) approach
(Gabryelczyk and Roztocki 2018).
A vast majority of authors conducting research on ES focus their attention on the private sector and for-
profit organizations, but there are also several papers on ES in the public sector. Surprisingly, in many of
these papers, authors do not explicitly define the public sector. In the 1980s and 1990s, Rose (1981) and
Lane (1993) emphasized the need to establish a clear definition of the public sector and its demarcation in
relation to the private sector. At this time, the need for a definition was conditioned, in particular, serious
public concerns about the so-called “big government,” and the government growing larger and expanding
in many economic areas. In this context, in order to evaluate the government and its actions, it was
necessary to clearly define what constitutes government organizations or the public and private sector
entities, in general (Rose 1981).
In his work, Lane (1993) presents four approaches to define the public sector. He emphasizes the
importance of public administration and public authority as decision makers on behalf of the society,
which provides response to the needs coming from the general public. Lane (1993) stresses the
macroeconomic aspect of public sector operation. Based on these considerations, he draws attention to
governmental operations in terms of consumption, investment, transfers and production. For the purpose
of our paper and building on Lane’s (1993) considerations, we propose the following operational
definition of the public sector. The public sector is defined as a collection of strictly (legal) regulated

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government activities, especially in the area of consumption, investment, transfer and production, which
brings outcomes (or consequences) for the society.
There have been several attempts to review the current status of ES research in the public sector. Kelemen
(2014) reviewed 31 papers on the topic published from January 2008 until March 2013. He found that at
the time of his research, ES was implemented in various organizations from the public sector, such as
education, defence, and public health care. However, to our best knowledge, there is no comprehensive
review that systematically assesses the current research landscape in the field of ES in the public sector.
Thus, our objective in this paper is to close this gap and explore the following research questions:
1. What are the topics investigated in the literature?
2. What are the identified gaps and resulting research avenues proposed?
The remainder of the paper is structured as follows. After discussing the background of our research, we
describe our research methodology. After presenting the results, we discuss our findings. We conclude our
paper with pointing out our contributions and showing promising research avenues.
Background
A methodological review of existing literature is vital for every research project. Consequently, literature
review papers are valuable resources for researchers conducting studies in a given field (Webster and
Watson 2002). In this section of the paper, we build a case for our literature review by showing the urgent
need for a methodical assessment of existing publications in the emerging field of ES in the public sector.
First, we review several literature review papers on ES by synthesizing their most important conclusions.
Then, we introduce three existing literature review papers specifically on ES in the public sector and show
their contribution to the existing body of knowledge while pointing to their limitations.
There are several published literature review papers that focus on ES. Esteves and Pastor (2001) reviewed
189 journal and conference papers that were published between 1997 and 2000. In a different literature
review, Shehab et al. (2004) reviewed 76 journal papers, conference proceedings and books on ES that
were published between 1990 and 2003. In 2007, Esteves and Bohorquez updated earlier work and
expanded the paper sample to 640 papers that were published in journals and conference proceedings. In
summary, all these literature reviews focus on ES in general but did not specifically address the topic of
ES in the public sector.
The literature review papers specifically on ES in the public sector emerged much later. In 2006,
Raymond et al. published a study which analyzed 46 ‘success stories’ from 15 countries published on the
websites by the largest Enterprise Resources Paneling (ERP) vendors. Authors of this paper characterize
and categorize four types of motivations that lead to the adoption of ES systems in e-government:
technical, operational, strategic, and performance. They conclude that the main driving force for the
public sector organizations is to implement ES to integrate their existing information technology, while
seeking to improve existing business processes (Raymond et al. 2006). Overall, Raymond et al. (2006)
work is rather an ERP industry analysis than a methodological review of previously published academic
papers.
The oldest systematic literature review paper specifically on ES in public sector that we were able to
identify was published in 2014 which shows a 13 year delay. In this literature review paper, Kelemen
(2014) reviews 31 papers and categorizes them according to the country and the area of the public sector
where the ES was implemented. However, Kelemen (2014) omits classifying the papers in his sample in
terms of research stream category. The majority of papers in the Kelemen’s (2014) sample report on the
ES implementations in the USA focuses on public education. In a more recent study, Lugonja (2018)
reviews a relatively small sample of 10 papers about ES in the public sector. Based on the synthesis of
these papers, Lugonja (2018) concludes that interoperability, defined as the ability to work with other
computer systems while providing a straightforward user interface, is one of the most influential factors
regarding ES implementations in the public sector.
Overall, we were able to identify only two methodological reviews conducted by Kelemen (2014) and
Lugonja (2018) who examined an emerging field of ES in the public sector. As compared to ES in the
private sectors, this presents a substantial gap and motivates our work.

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Methodology
To assemble a sample of papers needed for our analysis, in October 2019, we searched published studies
by using databases such as Scopus, Science Direct, Web of Science, Taylor and Francis, Springer, Elsevier,
Ebsco, and Google Scholar. In order to be included in our sample, the paper needs to satisfy the following
criteria. First, the work must be a full paper written in English and published in an academic journal or in
a conference proceeding of an international academic conference. Second, the one of the following
phrases: “Government”, “Public administration”, “Public institution”, “Public organization”, “Public
sector”, or “Public service” must appear in the title, in the abstract, or in the keywords. Third, one of the
following phrases: “Enterprise system”, “Enterprise resource planning”, “ES”, “ERP”, or a specific ES (e.g.
SAP), must appear in the title, in the abstract, or in the keywords. In addition, books, book chapters,
studies published in non-peer-reviewed journals, short and extended abstracts, dissertations, theses, and
working papers were not considered in our study. In essence, we were using more strict criteria than
Kelemen (2014), who included in his sample books and dissertations in Croatian. Our search ended up
with a sample of 31 papers spanning the years 2000 through 2019 as depicted in Table 1.
Year
Count
Year
Count
Year
Count
Year
Count
Year
Count
2000
1
2004
0
2008
2
2012
1
2016
2
2001
1
2005
2
2009
2
2013
4
2017
4
2002
3
2006
1
2010
1
2014
1
2018
0
2003
3
2007
0
2011
1
2015
1
2019
1
Table 1. Papers by Year
As can be seen from Table 1, the earliest publication we were able to identify is from 2000. This represents
a time gap as the mainstream research on ES in general, going back as far as 1996 (Roztocki et al. 2020).
Concerning publication volume, there are about two papers on the topic published each year.
In analyzing papers in our sample, we followed the methodology for literature review proposed by
Roztocki and Weistroffer (2015). Our analytical research framework is depicted in Figure 1.
Figure 1. Analytical Framework – Perspectives and Outcomes (adapted from Roztocki and
Weistroffer (2015))
Using the analytical research framework by Roztocki and Weistroffer (2015), we grouped the papers in
our sample by research focus, research approach, and theoretical foundation. Research focus contains the
topic of the paper, the research stream category, the country in which the data was collected, and the part
of the public sector. Similar to a literature review conducted by Kelemen (2014), we categorized papers by
the particular part of the public sector: education, public administration, healthcare and defense/police
forces. We also conducted the research stream categorization. For the purpose of this categorization, both
authors independently coded and assigned the papers in the sample to a mainstream category based on
the content. Possible differences were discussed to reach an agreement. Regarding the research approach,
we considered the data source and unit of analysis. For theoretical foundation, we examined the paper for
explaining theory, model, and framework.
Research Focus
• Topic of investigation
• Research stream
• Country
• Part of the public sector
Research Approach
• Data source
• Unit of analysis
Theoretical Foundation
• Explaining theory
Literature on Enterprise
Systems in the Public
Sector
Sample of 31 Academic
Papers
Themes and Trends in
the Existing Literature
Gaps and
Opportunities for
Future Research
Perspectives
Outcomes

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Results
Using the analytical research framework developed by Roztocki and Weistroffer (2015) and taking into
account the content and topic of investigation of the papers in our sample we identified six categories of
the research stream as presented in Table 2. This table lists all 31 papers in our sample with topic of
investigation, research stream category, country of data collection, the part of the public sector and level
of investigation which we classify as country, organization, department or individual level.
Paper
Topic of Investigation
Research Stream
Category
Country/
Territory
Part of the
public sector
Level of
Investigation
Al-Harthi and
Saudagar (2019)
Success drivers for ERP
implementation
Success factors of ES
implementation
Saudi Arabia
Public
administration
Organization
Alsharari (2017)
ERP implementations from
institutional logic perspective
Implementation of
ES
United Arab
Emirates
Public
administration
Organization
Althonayan and
Althonayan (2017)
The impact of ERP implementation
on users’ performance
Impact of ES
implementation
Saudi Arabia
Education
Individual
Alves and Matos
(2013)
Comparisons between ERP
implementations in the public and the
private sector
Implementation of
ES
Portugal
Multiple
Organization
Blick et al. (2000)
Examine the role of business process
modeling for ERP implementations
Implementation of
ES
USA
Defense
Organization
Bukamal and Abu
Wadi (2016)
Success factors for ERP
implementation
Success factors of ES
implementation
Bahrain
Multiple
Organization
Campos Fernandes
Leandro et al.
(2017)
Success factors for ERP
implementation
Success factors of ES
implementation
Brazil
Education
Organization
Chang and Gable
(2002)
ERP life cycle from the perspective of
involved individuals
ES life cycle
implementation
Australia
Public
administration
Individual
Coelho et al. (2016)
Examine the client-consultant
relationship during the ERP
implementation
Implementation of
ES
Brazil
Public
administration
Organization
Crisostomo
(2008a)
Success factors for ERP
implementation
Success factors of ES
implementation
Guam
Public
administration
Organization
Crisostomo
(2008b)
Success factors for ERP
implementation
Success factors of ES
implementation
Guam
Public
administration
Organization
de Castro Silva and
de Oliveira (2015)
Examine the challenges during the
ERP planning and selection process
Impact of ES
implementation
Brazil
Education
Organization
Equey Balzli and
Morard (2012)
Impact of ES on required skills of
employees
Impact of ES
implementation
Switzerland
Public
administration
Individual
Fernandez et al.
(2017)
Examine the impact of ERP
implementation
Impact of ES
implementation
Malaysia
Public
administration
Organization
Gulledge and
Simon (2005)
Describe the evolution of ERP
implementations
Implementation of
ES
USA
Defense
Organization
Gulledge and
Sommer (2002)
Alignment between ES and Business
Process Management (BPM)
ES and
organizational
change
USA
Defense
Organization
Gulledge and
Sommer (2003)
The interaction between BPM and ES
ES and
organizational
change
USA
Defense
Department
Kumar et al.
(2002)
ERP implementations and best
practices from organizational
perspective
Success factors of ES
implementation
Canada
Public
administration
Organization
Rautiainen and
Scapens (2013)
ERP adoption and organizational
change in the context of actor network
theory and new institutional sociology
ES and
organizational
change
Finland
Public
administration
Organization
Robey et al. (2006)
Identification of different contract
vehicles and how they map to ERP
implementation methodologies
ES life cycle
implementation
USA
Public
administration
Organization
Rosacker and
Rosacker (2010)
Information technology project
management
Impact of ES
implementation
USA
Public
administration
Organization
Sedera et al.
(2003)
Examine the ERP systems success
Impact of ES
implementation
Australia
Public
administration
Organization

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Paper
Topic of Investigation
Research Stream
Category
Country/
Territory
Part of the
public sector
Level of
Investigation
Siau and
Messersmith
(2003)
ERP implementations from
organizational perspective
Implementation of
ES
USA
Education
Organization
Sommer (2011)
Examine the role of middle
management in the successful ERP
implementation
Success factors of ES
implementation
USA
Defense
Organization
Spano et al. (2009)
Examine the impact of implementing
ERP system on organizational
processes and individuals
Impact of ES
implementation
Italy
Public
administration
Organization
Spathis and
Ananiadis (2005)
Examine the impact of decisions
stemming from the ERP system on
the accounting information and
management process
Impact of ES
implementation
Greece
Education
Organization
Stewart and
Rosemann (2001)
Design of ERP related curriculum
Teaching ES
Australia
Education
Organization
Wagner and
Antonucci (2009)
Describe the first large-scale, public-
sector ERP implementation
Implementation of
ES
USA
Public
administration
Organization
Williams et al.
(2013)
Describe the usefulness of the
teleological process theory in
managing ERP implementation
ES and
organizational
change
UK
Public
administration
Organization
Ziemba and Oblak
(2013)
Critical success factors for ERP
implementation in public sector
Success factors of ES
implementation
Poland
Public
administration
Organization
Ziemba and Oblak
(2014)
Types of information systems
implemented in public administration
Implementation of
ES
Poland
Public
administration
Organization
Table 2. Papers with Topics of Investigation, Countries of Data Collection, and Part of the
Public Sector
As can be seen in Table 2, the reviewed papers are strongly concentrated with identification of success
factors of ES implementation, a description of the process of particular ES implementation and
examination of the impact of ES implementation on both organization and individuals.
With reference to our methodology and Kelemen’s (2014) papers on the categorization of the public
sector, we noticed that a large portion of the research (eighteen) were conducted in different public
administration institution both on country and local authority level. We also identified six studies
conducted in educational and five in the defense entities. There were also two articles describing ES
implementation issues in various public organizations.
Despite healthcare represents a substantial portion of the public sector (Kelemen 2014) and are provided
mostly by public-owned healthcare institutions according to many countries’ regulation, using established
criteria of the papers selection we did not find any articles about ES in the healthcare sector. However,
some previous research in the healthcare field of ES implementation were conducted, but the authors fail
to provide a clear statement about the public sector status (e.g. Boonstra and Govers 2009; Garg and
Agarwal 2014; Poba-Nzaou et al. 2014). Overall, our analysis of the papers ended with identification of six
research streams that were covered in our sample.
Although the papers in our sample focus on 16 countries, it appears that the research is dominated by
cases conducted in the USA. Also, in response to the relatively high popularity of ES in Europe, research
in eight papers were disseminated, however there were no studies from France and Germany. It seems
that scholars from these countries focused on private sector ES implementation issues rather than public
sector (Azan and Bollecker 2011; Heinzelmann 2017; Leyh 2012). Only three papers report research
conducted in Australia and Brazil. Some researches refer to success factors of ES implementation,
describing the process of implementing ES system and the impact of ES implementation on the public
sector organization were undertaken in Middle East countries. With the exception of Poland, in our
search, we were not able to find papers about research conducted in public organizations in transition
economies (e.g. Russia, Romania and Belarus). In addition, no African countries are present in our
sample.
As depicted in Table 2, most of the studies in our sample investigate ES on the organizational level. Only
three papers in our sample investigate the individual and only one on departmental level. Studies that
investigate ES in the public sector on the country level are not present. Moreover, referring to adopted

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research framework developed by Roztocki and Weistroffer (2015) and examining the selected papers for
the source of the data, we noticed that many authors used mix of data sources. The most common source
of data are surveys (14 papers) and interviews (13 papers), while some authors report on their
observations and experiences.
In the next step of our analysis, we searched the papers in our sample for explaining theories as depicted
in Table 3.
Paper
Theory
Application of Theory
Alsharari (2017)
Institutional logics
Use to understand and manage ES
Coelho et al. (2016)
The theoretical framework proposed by
Pozzebon and Pinsonneault (2012)
Explain and understand how knowledge and power
are shared and negotiated during ES implementation
Kumar et al. (2002)
The innovation process theory framework
and the Markus and Tanis (2000) model
Used as a basis to delineate the ERP adoption process
Rautiainen and Scapens (2013)
Actor network theory (ANT)/
New institutional sociology (NIS)
Used to understand accounting changes in the
organization
Sedera et al. (2003)
The DeLone and McLean (1992) IS success
model
Provide the basis for construct identification in ES
success implementation
Siau and Messersmith (2003)
Interactionist model of organizational
creativity and Innovation Strategy Model
Verify applicability of Innovation Strategy Model in
public sector organizations
Spathis and Ananiadis (2005)
Disconfirmation theory
Explain users’ satisfaction
Wagner and Antonucci (2009)
Process theory
Explain success factors in ES implementation
Williams et al. (2013)
Teleological process theory
Understand organizational change
Table 3. Theories Used
As it could be seen from Table 3, we found out that only nine out of 31 papers contain theoretical
background that are used to explain and justify the achieved results. In addition, a mix of various theories
was used and no dominant theory appeared.
Finally, in the last step of our analysis, we searched the papers in our sample for recommendations
regarding future research. The results are depicted in Table 4.
Paper
Future Research
Quotations form Source Articles
Al-Harthi and
Saudagar (2019)
Examine the identified success
drivers in private sector
and testing the interrelationship
between them in public sector
“The findings of this research could be used in future researches in order to
examine them in other industry such as private sector. (…) Second thing
that may inspires future researches is testing the interrelationships between
the success drivers presented in this research.”
Althonayan and
Althonayan (2017)
Examine stakeholder’s perspective
during maturity phase of ES
implementation in universities and
impact of ES on stakeholders
“Future research would be useful during the maturity phase to include all
stakeholders in several Saudi universities. (…) more research can be
beneficial to test the applicability of the impact of the ERP system on
stakeholders’ performance in (…) [public and private organization]”
Alves and Matos
(2013)
Expanded geographic scope
“… there is an opportunity for replicating this study across different
countries.”
Campos Fernandes
Leandro et al.
(2017)
Monitoring and verification of
usefulness of proposed CSF
categorization
“… it is suggested the observation and monitoring of critical success factors
in loco, demonstrating the need for adjustments to the initial proposal of
CSF presented in this work, in ERP systems implementations …”
Chang and Gable
(2002)
Benefits of ES implementation in
public sector
“… numerous of studies of IS issues have been conducted of public sector
but there has been little study of public sector organization.”
Coelho et al. (2016)
Examine the impact of political
changes on ES implementation.
Explain the difference between
public and private sectors ES
implementation
“Further research could be undertaken in this area. One suggestion to this
end may be to continue monitoring this ERP implementation project until it
is launched (...) change in political power may also provide an interesting
opportunity for studying the project. (…) investigation of the difference
between implementing ERP in the private and public sectors.”
Crisostomo
(2008a)
Develop comparative studies in the
scope of uses of different ES,
defining the successful ES
implementations
“Conduct a study that compares ERP systems that uses the same basis of
accounting method (…) in the public sector. Conduct a study that compares
different ERP system used within the same industry (…) to determine the
successes of implementing an ERP system.”
Crisostomo
(2008b)
Identify the risk factors and
barriers of ES implementation in
public sector
“Conduct a study that identifies the risk factors in implementing an ERP
system in the public sector. Conduct a study that identifies the barriers of
successful implementation in the public sector.”
de Castro Silva and
de Oliveira (2015)
Develop tools that facilitate the
process of adjustment of projects
scope to implement ES
“The study continues in order to elaborate tools that facilitate the process of
adjustment of scope of projects to implement ERP.”

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Paper
Future Research
Quotations form Source Articles
Equey Balzli and
Morard (2012)
Expand the research on national
and departmental level and expand
sample group. Continue the
research in the scope of changes in
a professional groups
“… future research should consider this sample’s stratification, and ensure
that questionnaires are sent to the most diverse group of employees
possible.”
“… testing the level of accountants’ educational backgrounds, and the ideal
skill sets necessary to work effectively with the new accounting tools.”
Fernandez et al.
(2017)
Expand the scope of respondents
and apply other qualitative
methods. Expand the research in
other types of organizations
“... the respondents of this study are dominated by accountants. (…) future
research might want to look on other personnel in public sector. (...) Future
studies can be conducted on other department of public sector or other
types of organizations ...”
Gulledge and
Simon (2005)
Continuation SAP implementation
methodology development
“…it is our hope that the focus on these issues will elevate interest in
pursuing some of the unanswered questions as we continue to pursue the
unfinished research agenda described in Al-Mashari (2003).”
Kumar et al. (2002)
More research focused on the
implementation process and
solving the problems that arise
“… research can be recognized that are based on organizational concerns
found in this study. (…) Another natural extension of this study could be to
explore organizations which have stabilized their ERP systems and have
moved to the Onwards and Upwards stage ...”
Rautiainen and
Scapens (2013)
Expand the research in other types
of organizations.
Explore the use of multiple
theories in accounting research
“Concepts from both ANT and NIS may be useful for researchers studying
how changes take place in different parts of an organization. (…) However,
further studies are needed to explore the use of multiple theories in
accounting research.”
Rosacker and
Rosacker (2010)
Identify best practices for ES
identification
“Future empirical studies surrounding “best business practices” with respect
to information technology project management would be valuable ...”
Siau and
Messersmith
(2003)
Effects of ES on innovation
“…further research needs to be conducted on the factors that have proven to
predict innovative effectiveness, to determine which factors are ultimately
most important in deciding an organization’s potential for innovation.”
Sommer (2011)
Expand the sample
“Future efforts will endeavor to expand the sample size ...”
Spano et al. (2009)
Investigate differences in
evaluation of a system between
users and non-users
“… we found differences between users and non-users. (…) This is certainly
an issue for further investigation to understand which system elements
individuals’ perceptions are based on.”
Spathis and
Ananiadis (2005)
Examine the effects of ES
implementation on improvements
of financial performance (e.g.
financial ratios)
“Future research could focus on other dimensions of ERP system benefits
(…) Future research may further examine expected as opposed to actual
benefits derived from ERP applications (…), as well as the impact of
technical, organizational and financial problems …”
Wagner and
Antonucci (2009)
Investigate the difference between
implementation of ES in the public
vs. private sector
“This suggests that there is a further need for additional analysis and study
of possible differences between public and private-sector ERP
implementations …”
Williams et al.
(2013)
Examine the role of various
stakeholders
“Future research may extend to a narrative analysis of the designer’s
interaction with stakeholders to achieve a consensus …”
Ziemba and Obląk
(2013)
Identify CSFs
“There is a need to conduct more in-depth research into (…) CSFs for
successful BPM and GRP implementation in public administration ...”
Ziemba and Obląk
(2014)
Examine the possible effects of ES
implementation on the public
sector organizations
“… (1) improvement of government processes by using government process
management and ERP systems, (2) improvement of government
management by using BI systems, (3) exploration of “best practices” …”
Table 4. Future Research
As depicted in Table 4, in 23 papers some opportunities for further research were proposed. Many authors
of these papers call for future research on critical success factors of ES implementation and developing a
catalog of good practices in implementing ES, role of stakeholders and the impact of ES implementation
on individuals and comparing the practices of ES implementation in private and public sectors. Moreover,
Al-Harthi and Saudagar (2019) point out that it is not enough to conduct research focused only on
identification of critical factors of ES implementation. Future research should especially concentrate on
identification of the relationships between these factors.
Some researchers propose quite obvious opportunities for future research to expand the geographical
scope, examine more organizations or expand sample of currently published studies. Few proposals for
future research seem very interesting to investigate as for e.g. Coelho et al. (2016) who suggest that
further research can be pushed to study the impact of political changes on ES implementation. In turn,
Siau and Messersmith (2003) recommend focusing research on identifying the ES implementation factors
that are significant in deciding an organization’s potential for innovation. We also observed possibilities to
develop research in the scope of ES implementation and post implementation impact on individuals and
their perspective of opportunities for knowledge and competence improvement for potential benefits in an

ES in the Public Sector: A Literature Review
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8
organization. For example, competence improvement is reported to have a positive effect on job
satisfaction (Kowal and Roztocki 2015) but this topic has not been investigated in the context of ES and
employees in the public sector.
Contribution, Limitation and Conclusion
A methodological review of existing literature is vital to the progress in a particular field to stimulate
academic discussion and inspires other scholars in their own research activities (Webster and Watson
2002). Other researchers could build on the ideas and recommendations provided in the review paper
and by saving time, they pursue a more focused and aggressive research agenda. Thus, a methodological
literature review presented in this paper, doubtfully constitutes a substantial contribution to the field of
ES in the public sector.
Concerning our first research question, the most common topics in the literature on ES in the public
sector is the identification of success factors related to system implementation and assessing the impact of
ES on organizations that implemented it. Concerning our second research question, besides rather trivial
recommendations such as expanding the scope of investigation to other organizations or increase the
sample size, many authors believe that future research should look for additional critical success factors
related to ES implementation in the public sector. In addition, many authors call for future research that
should investigate the role of various stakeholders and to compare ES adoption in the public versus the
private sector.
Of course, our work is subject to limitations. A major limitation of our research is the relatively small
sample of papers. As compared to Esteves and Bohorquez (2007), who reviewed 640 papers on ES, we
were able to identify only 31 papers that specifically focus on ES in the public sector. Therefore, some of
our conclusions may be incomplete and perhaps biased. However, this limitation in the same way
presents an evident research opportunity for the future, as other authors may conduct a more complete
investigation as many more papers in this field will be published.
To conclude, we are very positive that results presented in this work will support and motivate other
researchers to advance the promising field of ES in the public sector.
Acknowledgements
This work was supported by the Polish National Science Centre, Poland, Grant No.
2018/29/B/HS4/02578.
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