Intellectual foundations and mainstream research of e-government in public administration

Purpose This paper aims to conduct a bibliometric study on e-government research, with special concern over finding bases on which electronic government studies are constructed. Design/methodology/approach This paper is a bibliometric study using citation, co-citation and bibliometric coupling analysis, applied to 161 selected articles published in 37 top journals in public administration. Findings The paper presents existing knowledge on e-government research and provides a categorization in terms of research subfields. The 40 top-cited works were classified into three subfields of intellectual influence: models and evolution; implementation factors; and adoption constraints. In total, 63 works were classified into three subfields of mainstream research: adoption (contextual and technological factors); evolution status and implementation; and social capital. The paper presents gaps in research streams. Practical implications This study may provide support to government institutions to assess the allocation of public resources for research. Originality/value The paper fulfils an identified need to examine the intellectual foundations and mainstream research in the field of e-government, unlike other reviews. The paper makes a methodological contribution by integrating co-citation and bibliographic coupling in mapping knowledge.