Aleksander Aristovnik - Academia.edu (original) (raw)

Papers by Aleksander Aristovnik

Amfiteatru Economic, 2015

The article investigates the impact and efficiency of bureaucracy on the development of small and... more The article investigates the impact and efficiency of bureaucracy on the development of small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in the European Union (EU). For this purpose, the article applies a non-parametric approach, i.e. data envelopment analysis (DEA), to assess the best performers in terms of transforming existing bureaucratic burdens into selected SME indicators, such as growth in their numbers, employment or value added in the 2010-2014 period. The empirical results show that Luxembourg, Sweden and, in particular, the Baltic States can serve as a good benchmark for transforming a relatively favourable environment of public administration excellence into SME indicator growth. On the other hand, Denmark and the UK, despite their top ease-of-doing-business rankings could not significantly spur SME growth in the considered period. Nevertheless, the main goal for the large majority of EU member states, especially in Southeast Europe and the Mediterranean region, remains a further reduction of bureaucracy that could be useful for improving the regulatory environment of SMEs and thus aid in an even more rapid recovery from the crisis.

Journal of Business Economics

This paper analyses the impact of the use of digital communication tools in administrative proced... more This paper analyses the impact of the use of digital communication tools in administrative procedures on the effectiveness of local administrative authorities during the COVID-19 pandemic. It considers COVID-19-driven changes in the legal competence of the institutional unit and administrative authorities’ orientation to good governance as mediators of this relationship. By applying partial least squares structural equation modelling (PLS-SEM) to survey data (N = 610) from five central European countries, we show that the accelerated use of digitalized communication tools driven by the COVID-19 situation has a positive effect on the effectiveness of local administrative authorities. Our data also indicate that the new laws, instructions and good governance driven by the COVID-19 situation – based on mostly convergent administrative traditions and European trends – partially mediate the relationship between the use of digital communication tools and administrative effectiveness. Thes...

International Association for Development of the Information Society, 2015

The use of information and communication technologies (ICT) and therefore e-learning is becoming ... more The use of information and communication technologies (ICT) and therefore e-learning is becoming an ever more frequently used teaching and learning technique at all levels of education. In higher education, it completely or partially substitutes the classical teaching methods. It provides richer resources than the traditional classroom and overcomes its limitations (time and space). In some cases, it has proved to be very effective. Some authors, however, also point out that e-learning requires highly self-regulated and independent students or their e-learning performance may be low. The purpose of the paper is to analyse how introduction of the e-learning system Moodle as part of the teaching process is related with students’ performance, i.e. the average grade and the average number of admissions to the exams. We also examined the same relationship among different groups of students (based on selected individual socio-demographic factors). The study included a member of the Univer...

International Association for Development of the Information Society, 2016

Blended learning is already a strongly established way of teaching in higher education. In suppor... more Blended learning is already a strongly established way of teaching in higher education. In support of face-to-face teaching, e-courses may vary in structure, assignments, prompt examinations, interaction between students and teachers etc. In the paper, we present an analysis of factors that influence the usefulness of e-courses as perceived by students. A survey was conducted among students of the public administration programme at the Faculty of Public Administration, University of Ljubljana. Students evaluated 13 different aspects of e-courses in which they were enrolled. These aspects were assessed on a 7-point opinion scale. Results obtained in the survey were connected with certain demographic data, such as gender, high school final grade, year of study, study programme etc. A multiple linear regression was used with perceived usefulness as the response (dependent) variable and the 12 other e-course aspects as predictors (independent) variables. Further, the same regression ana...


Journal of e-learning and knowledge society, 2018

In the present study, the correlations between selected aspects of e-learning in the blended lear... more In the present study, the correlations between selected aspects of e-learning in the blended learning environment and the competencies students should acquire during their study are explored. The research was based on two different questionnaire-based surveys conducted among Faculty of Administration students. In the research 41 2nd year students of the university study programme were involved. We found that the problem-solving competency is highly correlated with the adequacy of e-learning. Our findings also suggest a high correlation between the computer skills competency and the usefulness of e-learning. The results could serve as a guide for the faculty management when further investigating how to enhance the students’ competencies while employing modern solutions in the teaching process.

International Association for Development of the Information Society, 2017

Modern technologies radically simplify the availability of the latest scientific literature and o... more Modern technologies radically simplify the availability of the latest scientific literature and offer new possibilities for sharing knowledge. Yet, most higher education institutions still rely on traditional face-to-face teaching and use e-courses ‘only’ to supplement it. Such a combination of teaching methods is known as blended learning and is also used at the Faculty of Administration (FA), a member of the University of Ljubljana. The paper presents the results of a survey among FA students. The study’s aim was to identify which aspects of blended learning increase students’ knowledge level. Students evaluated 23 different aspects of blended learning on a 7-level scale. As a measure of the level of students’ knowledge gained from each course, we used their final grades. Applying principal component analysis, we extracted six dimensions of blended learning which represented predictor components in a multiple linear regression with final grade as the dependent variable. Since cour...

The AMFITEATRU ECONOMIC journal, 2015

The article investigates the impact and efficiency of bureaucracy on the development of small and... more The article investigates the impact and efficiency of bureaucracy on the development of small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in the European Union (EU). For this purpose, the article applies a non-parametric approach, i.e. data envelopment analysis (DEA), to assess the best performers in terms of transforming existing bureaucratic burdens into selected SME indicators, such as growth in their numbers, employment or value added in the 2010-2014 period. The empirical results show that Luxembourg, Sweden and, in particular, the Baltic States can serve as a good benchmark for transforming a relatively favourable environment of public administration excellence into SME indicator growth. On the other hand, Denmark and the UK, despite their top ease-of-doing-business rankings could not significantly spur SME growth in the considered period. Nevertheless, the main goal for the large majority of EU member states, especially in South-east Europe and the Mediterranean region, remains a fur...

Public Affairs Education and Training in the 21st Century, 2022

The COVID-19 pandemic has radically transformed the lives of people, including higher education s... more The COVID-19 pandemic has radically transformed the lives of people, including higher education students. Thus, the main aim of the chapter is to present the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on academic work and life of public administration students in Slovenia compared with their counterparts from other fields of study. The analysis is based on 1,049 Slovenian respondents, covering 211 students from public administration and 838 students from other fields of study. The results show that at the time of the lockdown public administration students were the most satisfied with real-time online lectures, followed by asynchronous forms of lectures. Compared with the students from other fields of study, they were in general more satisfied with provided course assignments and feedback on performance but less satisfied with lecturers' response, openness, and information. They also found it more difficult to focus, adapt, and achieve better performance in the online environment and were...

PLOS ONE, 2019

Performed in a Slovenian higher education institution, the presented research was designed to hel... more Performed in a Slovenian higher education institution, the presented research was designed to help investigate which factors influence the ways a student perceives an e-course's usefulness in a blended learning environment. The study is based on an online questionnaire completed by 539 students whose participation in the survey was voluntary. Using structural equation modelling, the students' perceptions of different aspects were investigated, including their attitudes to course topics and technology, learning preferences, teachers' role in course design and managing the teaching process. The empirical results show e-learning is positively perceived to be usefulness when: (1) the teacher is engaged and their activities in an e-course, with the (2) a student's attitude to the subject matter and the lecturer's classroom performance having a direct impact, and (3) technology acceptance having an indirect impact. No major differences were revealed when the model was tested on student subgroups sorted by gender, year of study, and students' weekly spare-time activities.

International Journal of Human Resources Development and Management, 2018

Good administration emphasises the service-mindedness of public administration and the restrictio... more Good administration emphasises the service-mindedness of public administration and the restriction of authority. It has long been primarily understood as a legal doctrine. However, the notion of good administration has to be expanded with the concept of business excellence to incorporate specific managerial elements because satisfied civil servants better satisfy the public interest and the rights of parties. Hence, an analysis of good administration in relation to job satisfaction was conducted, with a special focus on Slovenian practices in various types of administrative agencies. First, the results show that job satisfaction is a factor of good administration and, second, that its understanding and enforcement vary according to the type of agency involved (service or authoritative). Third, there is an insufficient awareness of job satisfaction impact both on the satisfaction of parties in administrative procedures and on good administration holistically.

Interactive Technology and Smart Education, 2019

Purpose This paper aims to study the relationship between students’ activities in the e-classroom... more Purpose This paper aims to study the relationship between students’ activities in the e-classroom and grades for the final exam. The study was conducted at the Faculty of Administration, University of Ljubljana among first-year undergraduate students. In the e-classroom, students learn new content for individual self-study, and their knowledge is checked with quizzes. Design/methodology/approach In the empirical study, the relationship between performance in quizzes and at the final exam was studied from two perspectives. First, successful and unsuccessful students (in terms of quizzes) were compared. Second, the Orange data mining software was used for two predictive modelling tasks. The research question was based on a student’s quiz performances, is it possible to predict whether the student will pass an exam and will the student’s grade for the exam be good. Findings The empirical results indicate a very strong connection between a student’s performance in quizzes and their scor...

NISPAcee Journal of Public Administration and Policy, 2018

This paper aims to analyze the development of the rule of law and its key characteristics as a pr... more This paper aims to analyze the development of the rule of law and its key characteristics as a principle within public governance model (PGM) research. In the study, we analyzed two main EU cultural and geographical subgroups, selected old and new EU member states, in order to identify the main convergences and differences characteristic of the respective clusters. With the accession to the European Union, these acceding countries were to transfer EU law into national law and reform their governance models accordingly. The aim of the research was achieved by following an original methodology, encompassing 431 relevant scientific papers from the Scopus database. Th e known QDA Miner 5.0.11 soft ware package was selected as the main tool for the analysis. Th e research questions were aimed at covering: (i) the role of the rule of law as one of the key governance principles in relation to the countries’ historical legacy and different governance models, (ii) the relationship between th...

SSRN Electronic Journal, 2006

The article examines the question of whether the current account deficits seen in selected transi... more The article examines the question of whether the current account deficits seen in selected transition economies in recent years mainly as a symptom of the dynamic economic activity of the catching-up process are a source of potential macroeconomic destabilisation. Given the possible significant reduction of capital flows, as well as restrictions and lessons from recent financial crises, current account deficits must be closely monitored in the region. In this respect, the issue of 'current account sustainability' in seventeen transition economies is investigated. For this purpose, two accounting frameworks (Milesi-Ferreti and Razin, 1996; Reisen, 1998) based on certain strict assumptions are employed. The results show that if the observed level of foreign direct investment (FDI) flows is kept in the medium run almost all countries could optimally have a higher level of external deficit, with the exception of countries such as Baltic States, Hungary, Macedonia, Moldova and Romania. Accordingly, the maintenance of relatively large FDI inflows (especially greenfield investments) to national economies is a key priority in securing future external sustainability. In the end, the results indicate that current account deficits of transition economies that exceed 5 percent of GDP generally involve problems of their external sustainability.

SSRN Electronic Journal, 2011

The paper applies a non-parametric approach, i.e. data envelopment analysis (DEA), to assess the ... more The paper applies a non-parametric approach, i.e. data envelopment analysis (DEA), to assess the relative technical efficiency of higher education across countries, with a particular focus on Croatia and Slovenia. When estimating the efficiency frontier we focus on measures of quantities outputs/outcomes. The results show that the relatively high public expenditure per student in Croatia should have resulted in a better performance regarding the outputs/outcomes, i.e. a higher rate of higher education school enrolment, a greater rate of labor force with a higher education and a lower rate of the unemployed who have a tertiary education. On the other hand, regardless of the input-output/outcome mix, the higher education system in Slovenia is shown to have a much higher level of efficiency compared to both Croatia and many other comparable EU and OECD countries.

Administrative Sciences

Public administration and public governance play a crucial role in society today by ensuring that... more Public administration and public governance play a crucial role in society today by ensuring that social needs are met. Due to the constantly changing environment, public governance models have transformed many times, creating differences in public governance practices among public administration institutions, with combinations of contradictory structures and principles that coexist. Accordingly, this paper aims to provide an overview of different public governance models, extract quantifiable elements based on models’ principles and examine the extent of layering of different governance models at different levels of public administration in the specific case of the Slovenian administration. Thus, the main focus is on identifying the differences in characteristics of public governance practices between state administration and local self-government. The results show state administration institutions are more strongly characterised by the Neo-Weberian model’s principles. In contrast,...

Social Sciences

The concept of smart public governance (SPG) is gaining attention among researchers, policymakers... more The concept of smart public governance (SPG) is gaining attention among researchers, policymakers, and practitioners around the world, especially in response to the modernisation of public administration through emerging technologies in both local (smart city) and national (smart government) levels. Spurred by the noticeable lack of understanding of the SPG concept, the paper aims to comprehensively examine the SPG research by considering the characteristic differences between the smart city and smart government concepts. Bibliometric analysis is based on the Scopus database, containing 775 documents published in the last two decades and facilitated by several established and innovative bibliometric approaches. The results reveal the growth of SPG research over time. Despite the smart city concept being the dominant focus in the SPG research, the smart government concept has been becoming more relevant in recent years, as indicated by some prominent documents published in reputable ...

Amfiteatru Economic, 2015

The article investigates the impact and efficiency of bureaucracy on the development of small and... more The article investigates the impact and efficiency of bureaucracy on the development of small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in the European Union (EU). For this purpose, the article applies a non-parametric approach, i.e. data envelopment analysis (DEA), to assess the best performers in terms of transforming existing bureaucratic burdens into selected SME indicators, such as growth in their numbers, employment or value added in the 2010-2014 period. The empirical results show that Luxembourg, Sweden and, in particular, the Baltic States can serve as a good benchmark for transforming a relatively favourable environment of public administration excellence into SME indicator growth. On the other hand, Denmark and the UK, despite their top ease-of-doing-business rankings could not significantly spur SME growth in the considered period. Nevertheless, the main goal for the large majority of EU member states, especially in Southeast Europe and the Mediterranean region, remains a further reduction of bureaucracy that could be useful for improving the regulatory environment of SMEs and thus aid in an even more rapid recovery from the crisis.

Journal of Business Economics

This paper analyses the impact of the use of digital communication tools in administrative proced... more This paper analyses the impact of the use of digital communication tools in administrative procedures on the effectiveness of local administrative authorities during the COVID-19 pandemic. It considers COVID-19-driven changes in the legal competence of the institutional unit and administrative authorities’ orientation to good governance as mediators of this relationship. By applying partial least squares structural equation modelling (PLS-SEM) to survey data (N = 610) from five central European countries, we show that the accelerated use of digitalized communication tools driven by the COVID-19 situation has a positive effect on the effectiveness of local administrative authorities. Our data also indicate that the new laws, instructions and good governance driven by the COVID-19 situation – based on mostly convergent administrative traditions and European trends – partially mediate the relationship between the use of digital communication tools and administrative effectiveness. Thes...

International Association for Development of the Information Society, 2015

The use of information and communication technologies (ICT) and therefore e-learning is becoming ... more The use of information and communication technologies (ICT) and therefore e-learning is becoming an ever more frequently used teaching and learning technique at all levels of education. In higher education, it completely or partially substitutes the classical teaching methods. It provides richer resources than the traditional classroom and overcomes its limitations (time and space). In some cases, it has proved to be very effective. Some authors, however, also point out that e-learning requires highly self-regulated and independent students or their e-learning performance may be low. The purpose of the paper is to analyse how introduction of the e-learning system Moodle as part of the teaching process is related with students’ performance, i.e. the average grade and the average number of admissions to the exams. We also examined the same relationship among different groups of students (based on selected individual socio-demographic factors). The study included a member of the Univer...

International Association for Development of the Information Society, 2016

Blended learning is already a strongly established way of teaching in higher education. In suppor... more Blended learning is already a strongly established way of teaching in higher education. In support of face-to-face teaching, e-courses may vary in structure, assignments, prompt examinations, interaction between students and teachers etc. In the paper, we present an analysis of factors that influence the usefulness of e-courses as perceived by students. A survey was conducted among students of the public administration programme at the Faculty of Public Administration, University of Ljubljana. Students evaluated 13 different aspects of e-courses in which they were enrolled. These aspects were assessed on a 7-point opinion scale. Results obtained in the survey were connected with certain demographic data, such as gender, high school final grade, year of study, study programme etc. A multiple linear regression was used with perceived usefulness as the response (dependent) variable and the 12 other e-course aspects as predictors (independent) variables. Further, the same regression ana...


Journal of e-learning and knowledge society, 2018

In the present study, the correlations between selected aspects of e-learning in the blended lear... more In the present study, the correlations between selected aspects of e-learning in the blended learning environment and the competencies students should acquire during their study are explored. The research was based on two different questionnaire-based surveys conducted among Faculty of Administration students. In the research 41 2nd year students of the university study programme were involved. We found that the problem-solving competency is highly correlated with the adequacy of e-learning. Our findings also suggest a high correlation between the computer skills competency and the usefulness of e-learning. The results could serve as a guide for the faculty management when further investigating how to enhance the students’ competencies while employing modern solutions in the teaching process.

International Association for Development of the Information Society, 2017

Modern technologies radically simplify the availability of the latest scientific literature and o... more Modern technologies radically simplify the availability of the latest scientific literature and offer new possibilities for sharing knowledge. Yet, most higher education institutions still rely on traditional face-to-face teaching and use e-courses ‘only’ to supplement it. Such a combination of teaching methods is known as blended learning and is also used at the Faculty of Administration (FA), a member of the University of Ljubljana. The paper presents the results of a survey among FA students. The study’s aim was to identify which aspects of blended learning increase students’ knowledge level. Students evaluated 23 different aspects of blended learning on a 7-level scale. As a measure of the level of students’ knowledge gained from each course, we used their final grades. Applying principal component analysis, we extracted six dimensions of blended learning which represented predictor components in a multiple linear regression with final grade as the dependent variable. Since cour...

The AMFITEATRU ECONOMIC journal, 2015

The article investigates the impact and efficiency of bureaucracy on the development of small and... more The article investigates the impact and efficiency of bureaucracy on the development of small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in the European Union (EU). For this purpose, the article applies a non-parametric approach, i.e. data envelopment analysis (DEA), to assess the best performers in terms of transforming existing bureaucratic burdens into selected SME indicators, such as growth in their numbers, employment or value added in the 2010-2014 period. The empirical results show that Luxembourg, Sweden and, in particular, the Baltic States can serve as a good benchmark for transforming a relatively favourable environment of public administration excellence into SME indicator growth. On the other hand, Denmark and the UK, despite their top ease-of-doing-business rankings could not significantly spur SME growth in the considered period. Nevertheless, the main goal for the large majority of EU member states, especially in South-east Europe and the Mediterranean region, remains a fur...

Public Affairs Education and Training in the 21st Century, 2022

The COVID-19 pandemic has radically transformed the lives of people, including higher education s... more The COVID-19 pandemic has radically transformed the lives of people, including higher education students. Thus, the main aim of the chapter is to present the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on academic work and life of public administration students in Slovenia compared with their counterparts from other fields of study. The analysis is based on 1,049 Slovenian respondents, covering 211 students from public administration and 838 students from other fields of study. The results show that at the time of the lockdown public administration students were the most satisfied with real-time online lectures, followed by asynchronous forms of lectures. Compared with the students from other fields of study, they were in general more satisfied with provided course assignments and feedback on performance but less satisfied with lecturers' response, openness, and information. They also found it more difficult to focus, adapt, and achieve better performance in the online environment and were...

PLOS ONE, 2019

Performed in a Slovenian higher education institution, the presented research was designed to hel... more Performed in a Slovenian higher education institution, the presented research was designed to help investigate which factors influence the ways a student perceives an e-course's usefulness in a blended learning environment. The study is based on an online questionnaire completed by 539 students whose participation in the survey was voluntary. Using structural equation modelling, the students' perceptions of different aspects were investigated, including their attitudes to course topics and technology, learning preferences, teachers' role in course design and managing the teaching process. The empirical results show e-learning is positively perceived to be usefulness when: (1) the teacher is engaged and their activities in an e-course, with the (2) a student's attitude to the subject matter and the lecturer's classroom performance having a direct impact, and (3) technology acceptance having an indirect impact. No major differences were revealed when the model was tested on student subgroups sorted by gender, year of study, and students' weekly spare-time activities.

International Journal of Human Resources Development and Management, 2018

Good administration emphasises the service-mindedness of public administration and the restrictio... more Good administration emphasises the service-mindedness of public administration and the restriction of authority. It has long been primarily understood as a legal doctrine. However, the notion of good administration has to be expanded with the concept of business excellence to incorporate specific managerial elements because satisfied civil servants better satisfy the public interest and the rights of parties. Hence, an analysis of good administration in relation to job satisfaction was conducted, with a special focus on Slovenian practices in various types of administrative agencies. First, the results show that job satisfaction is a factor of good administration and, second, that its understanding and enforcement vary according to the type of agency involved (service or authoritative). Third, there is an insufficient awareness of job satisfaction impact both on the satisfaction of parties in administrative procedures and on good administration holistically.

Interactive Technology and Smart Education, 2019

Purpose This paper aims to study the relationship between students’ activities in the e-classroom... more Purpose This paper aims to study the relationship between students’ activities in the e-classroom and grades for the final exam. The study was conducted at the Faculty of Administration, University of Ljubljana among first-year undergraduate students. In the e-classroom, students learn new content for individual self-study, and their knowledge is checked with quizzes. Design/methodology/approach In the empirical study, the relationship between performance in quizzes and at the final exam was studied from two perspectives. First, successful and unsuccessful students (in terms of quizzes) were compared. Second, the Orange data mining software was used for two predictive modelling tasks. The research question was based on a student’s quiz performances, is it possible to predict whether the student will pass an exam and will the student’s grade for the exam be good. Findings The empirical results indicate a very strong connection between a student’s performance in quizzes and their scor...

NISPAcee Journal of Public Administration and Policy, 2018

This paper aims to analyze the development of the rule of law and its key characteristics as a pr... more This paper aims to analyze the development of the rule of law and its key characteristics as a principle within public governance model (PGM) research. In the study, we analyzed two main EU cultural and geographical subgroups, selected old and new EU member states, in order to identify the main convergences and differences characteristic of the respective clusters. With the accession to the European Union, these acceding countries were to transfer EU law into national law and reform their governance models accordingly. The aim of the research was achieved by following an original methodology, encompassing 431 relevant scientific papers from the Scopus database. Th e known QDA Miner 5.0.11 soft ware package was selected as the main tool for the analysis. Th e research questions were aimed at covering: (i) the role of the rule of law as one of the key governance principles in relation to the countries’ historical legacy and different governance models, (ii) the relationship between th...

SSRN Electronic Journal, 2006

The article examines the question of whether the current account deficits seen in selected transi... more The article examines the question of whether the current account deficits seen in selected transition economies in recent years mainly as a symptom of the dynamic economic activity of the catching-up process are a source of potential macroeconomic destabilisation. Given the possible significant reduction of capital flows, as well as restrictions and lessons from recent financial crises, current account deficits must be closely monitored in the region. In this respect, the issue of 'current account sustainability' in seventeen transition economies is investigated. For this purpose, two accounting frameworks (Milesi-Ferreti and Razin, 1996; Reisen, 1998) based on certain strict assumptions are employed. The results show that if the observed level of foreign direct investment (FDI) flows is kept in the medium run almost all countries could optimally have a higher level of external deficit, with the exception of countries such as Baltic States, Hungary, Macedonia, Moldova and Romania. Accordingly, the maintenance of relatively large FDI inflows (especially greenfield investments) to national economies is a key priority in securing future external sustainability. In the end, the results indicate that current account deficits of transition economies that exceed 5 percent of GDP generally involve problems of their external sustainability.

SSRN Electronic Journal, 2011

The paper applies a non-parametric approach, i.e. data envelopment analysis (DEA), to assess the ... more The paper applies a non-parametric approach, i.e. data envelopment analysis (DEA), to assess the relative technical efficiency of higher education across countries, with a particular focus on Croatia and Slovenia. When estimating the efficiency frontier we focus on measures of quantities outputs/outcomes. The results show that the relatively high public expenditure per student in Croatia should have resulted in a better performance regarding the outputs/outcomes, i.e. a higher rate of higher education school enrolment, a greater rate of labor force with a higher education and a lower rate of the unemployed who have a tertiary education. On the other hand, regardless of the input-output/outcome mix, the higher education system in Slovenia is shown to have a much higher level of efficiency compared to both Croatia and many other comparable EU and OECD countries.

Administrative Sciences

Public administration and public governance play a crucial role in society today by ensuring that... more Public administration and public governance play a crucial role in society today by ensuring that social needs are met. Due to the constantly changing environment, public governance models have transformed many times, creating differences in public governance practices among public administration institutions, with combinations of contradictory structures and principles that coexist. Accordingly, this paper aims to provide an overview of different public governance models, extract quantifiable elements based on models’ principles and examine the extent of layering of different governance models at different levels of public administration in the specific case of the Slovenian administration. Thus, the main focus is on identifying the differences in characteristics of public governance practices between state administration and local self-government. The results show state administration institutions are more strongly characterised by the Neo-Weberian model’s principles. In contrast,...

Social Sciences

The concept of smart public governance (SPG) is gaining attention among researchers, policymakers... more The concept of smart public governance (SPG) is gaining attention among researchers, policymakers, and practitioners around the world, especially in response to the modernisation of public administration through emerging technologies in both local (smart city) and national (smart government) levels. Spurred by the noticeable lack of understanding of the SPG concept, the paper aims to comprehensively examine the SPG research by considering the characteristic differences between the smart city and smart government concepts. Bibliometric analysis is based on the Scopus database, containing 775 documents published in the last two decades and facilitated by several established and innovative bibliometric approaches. The results reveal the growth of SPG research over time. Despite the smart city concept being the dominant focus in the SPG research, the smart government concept has been becoming more relevant in recent years, as indicated by some prominent documents published in reputable ...