TY - JOUR
T1 - Digital practices for consumer e-participation in economic regulation and the role of organisational capacity
AU - Pivavarava, Alena
AU - Koop, Christel
N1 - Publisher Copyright:
© 2024 Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group.
PY - 2024/6/26
Y1 - 2024/6/26
N2 - How do national regulatory agencies (NRAs) use digital practices to empower consumers for e-participation in regulatory processes? To address this question, we designed a novel framework to comprehensively capture digital practices adopted by NRAs across the key regulatory procedures, including consumer information provision, communication, education, and rule-making, which we conceptualise as two-way relational mechanisms. To measure the scope of digital regulatory practices, we derived composite digital scores for 236 NRAs across 42 EU and OECD countries, based on coding the regulators’ websites and social media accounts. We also developed a new multidimensional construct of organisational capacity to explain the variation in the adoption of digital regulatory practices among NRAs with sole – and multi-sectoral competencies in five economic markets, ranging from utilities to financial services. Our findings show significant regional divergence in the adoption of digital regulatory practices by NRAs from the old and new EU member states, as well as the significant effect of NRA’s reform experience, resources allocations, sectoral competencies, and in-house capabilities on their digital scores. This study offers implications for both improving the effectiveness of regulatory procedures through consumer-oriented digital transformation, as well as government initiatives for enhancing digital trust and e-participation in economic regulation among consumers.
AB - How do national regulatory agencies (NRAs) use digital practices to empower consumers for e-participation in regulatory processes? To address this question, we designed a novel framework to comprehensively capture digital practices adopted by NRAs across the key regulatory procedures, including consumer information provision, communication, education, and rule-making, which we conceptualise as two-way relational mechanisms. To measure the scope of digital regulatory practices, we derived composite digital scores for 236 NRAs across 42 EU and OECD countries, based on coding the regulators’ websites and social media accounts. We also developed a new multidimensional construct of organisational capacity to explain the variation in the adoption of digital regulatory practices among NRAs with sole – and multi-sectoral competencies in five economic markets, ranging from utilities to financial services. Our findings show significant regional divergence in the adoption of digital regulatory practices by NRAs from the old and new EU member states, as well as the significant effect of NRA’s reform experience, resources allocations, sectoral competencies, and in-house capabilities on their digital scores. This study offers implications for both improving the effectiveness of regulatory procedures through consumer-oriented digital transformation, as well as government initiatives for enhancing digital trust and e-participation in economic regulation among consumers.
KW - digital regulation
KW - consumer e-participation
KW - economic regulators
KW - multidimensional organisational capacity
KW - organisational innovation adoption
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85197413082&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1080/13501763.2024.2367065
DO - 10.1080/13501763.2024.2367065
M3 - Article
SN - 1350-1763
SP - 1
EP - 43
JO - Journal of European Public Policy
JF - Journal of European Public Policy
ER -
