Communication Pathways in Multilevel Governance: A Review of Digital Innovation and Public Value
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.52152/RCR.V13.S9Keywords:
Multilevel Governance, Digital Communication Pathways, E-Government Innovation, Public Value, Digital InnovationAbstract
This study reviews communication pathways in multilevel governance, focusing on the role of digital innovation in shaping public value. The purpose was to examine how political communication is mediated digitally, how media technologies support governance innovation, and how digital channels contribute to public value through legitimacy, accountability, and trust. A systematic literature review (SLR) was conducted using the PRISMA framework, narrowing an initial pool of studies to 12 recent, peer-reviewed articles. Thematic analysis identified three key areas: digital mediation of political communication, the role of media technologies in governance innovation, and public value creation. Findings indicate that digital tools enhance transparency, inclusiveness, and responsiveness but remain limited by structural capacity gaps, inequality, and weak feedback mechanisms. The results confirm that technology must be embedded within strong institutional frameworks to realize its full potential. The study contributes to theories of deliberative democracy, public value, and socio-technical systems by showing how digital communication reshapes governance relationships. Future research should expand cross-country and longitudinal comparisons to deepen understanding of evolving digital governance dynamics.
References
Bélanger, M.-E., & Lavenex, S. (2023). Justifying mobility restrictions during the COVID-19 pandemic: A test in multilevel governance. West European Politics, 46(7), 1343–1368. https://doi.org/10.1080/01402382.2023.2197330
Chen, T., Liang, Z., Yi, H., & Chen, S. (2023). Responsive e-government in China: A way of gaining public support. Government Information Quarterly, 40(3), 101809. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.giq.2023.101809
Cordella, A., & Paletti, A. (2019). Government as a platform, orchestration, and public value creation: The Italian case. Government Information Quarterly, 36(4), 101409. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.giq.2019.101409
Cunneen, M., Mullins, M., & Murphy, F. (2019). Artificial intelligence assistants and risk: Framing a connectivity risk narrative. AI & Society, 35, 625-634.
Daft, R. L., & Lengel, R. H. (1986). Organizational information requirements, media richness and structural design. Management Science, 32(5), 554–571. https://doi.org/10.1287/mnsc.32.5.554
Edelenbos, J., van Popering-Verkerk, J., Taanman, M., & Stouten, M. (2025). Multilevel governance in times of COVID-19 pandemic: Patterns of legitimacy and governance capacity. Urban Governance, 5(1), 94–102.
Eom, S. J., & Lee, J. (2022). Digital government transformation in turbulent times: Responses, challenges, and future direction. Government Information Quarterly, 39(2), 101690. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.giq.2022.101690
Escher, T., & Rottinghaus, B. (2024). Effects of online citizen participation on legitimacy beliefs in local government: Evidence from a comparative study of online participation platforms in three German municipalities. Policy & Internet, 16(1), 173–208. https://doi.org/10.1002/poi3.371
Guenduez, A. A., Demircioglu, M. A., Mueller, E. M., & Cinar, E. (2025). Digital innovation strategies in the public sector. Research Policy, 54(8), 105274. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.respol.2025.105274
Ikromov, A. (2023). The digital platforms for public administration: A critical analysis of Estonian case. SSRN Electronic Journal. https://doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.4522148
Jimenez Alcarria, F., & Tuñón Navarro, J. (2024). Stakeholders and impact (engagement) in EU digital communication strategies during the COVID-19 vaccination campaign. Humanities and Social Sciences Communications, 11(1), 1–11.
Karkin, N., & Cezar, A. (2024). The generation of public value through e-participation initiatives: A synthesis of the extant literature. Government Information Quarterly, 41(2), 101935. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.giq.2024.101935
Kawabata, M. K., & Camargo Jr, A. S. (2023). E-government innovation initiatives in public administration: A systematic literature review and a research agenda. Administration & Society, 55(9), 1758–1790. https://doi.org/10.1177/00953997231185847
Kiratli, O. S. (2023). Social media effects on public trust in the European Union. Public Opinion Quarterly, 87(3), 749–763. https://doi.org/10.1093/poq/nfad029
Li, Y., & Shang, H. (2023). How does e-government use affect citizens’ trust in government? Empirical evidence from China. Information & Management, 60(7), 103844. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.im.2023.103844
Malik, V., Mittal, R., Mavaluru, D., Narapureddy, B. R., Goyal, S. B., Martin, R. J., ... & Mittal, A. (2023). Building a secure platform for digital governance interoperability and data exchange using blockchain and deep learning-based frameworks. IEEE Access, 11, 70110–70131. https://doi.org/10.1109/ACCESS.2023.3293529
Manoharan, A. P. (2022). Digital governance: An assessment of performance and adoption. Public Administration Review, 82(6), 1105–1118. https://doi.org/10.1111/puar.13485
March, J. G., & Olsen, J. P. (1984). The new institutionalism: Organizational factors in political life. American Political Science Review, 78(3), 734–749. https://doi.org/10.2307/1961840
Marks, G., Hooghe, L., & Blank, K. (1996). European integration from the 1980s: State‐centric v. multi‐level governance. Journal of Common Market Studies, 34(3), 341–378. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1468-5965.1996.tb00577.x
Martinsen, D. S., & Goetz, K. H. (2022). COVID‐19 and European multi‐level democracy. Journal of Common Market Studies. Advance online publication. https://doi.org/10.1111/jcms.13417
Moher, D., Liberati, A., Tetzlaff, J., Altman, D. G., & The PRISMA Group. (2009). Preferred reporting items for systematic reviews and meta-analyses: The PRISMA statement. PLoS Medicine, 6(7), e1000097. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pmed.1000097
Molodtsov, F., & Nikiforova, A. (2024). An integrated usability framework for evaluating open government data portals: A comparative analysis of EU and GCC. arXiv preprint. https://arxiv.org/abs/2403.08451
Moore, M. H. (1995). Creating public value: Strategic management in government. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
Moser-Plautz, B., & Schmidthuber, L. (2023). Digital government transformation as an organizational response to the COVID-19 pandemic. Government Information Quarterly, 40(3), 101815. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.giq.2023.101815
Müller, M. (2022). Spreading the word? European Union agencies and social media attention. Government Information Quarterly, 39(2), 101682. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.giq.2022.101682
OECD. (2024). Enabling digital innovation in government: The OECD GovTech policy framework. OECD Publishing. https://doi.org/10.1787/a51eb9b2-en
Palmisano, F., & Sacchi, A. (2024). Trust in public institutions, inequality, and digital interaction: Empirical evidence from European Union countries. Journal of Macroeconomics, 79, 103582. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jmacro.2023.103582
Papadopoulos, Y., Tortola, P. D., & Geyer, N. (2024). Taking stock of the multilevel governance research programme: A systematic literature review. Regional & Federal Studies. Advance online publication. https://doi.org/10.1080/13597566.2024.2334470
Scupola, A., & Mergel, I. (2022). Co-production in digital transformation of public administration and public value creation: The case of Denmark. Government Information Quarterly, 39(1), 101650. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.giq.2021.101650
Shin, B., Floch, J., Rask, M., Baeck, P., Edgar, C., Berditchevskaia, A., Mesure, P., & Branlat, M. (2024). A systematic analysis of digital tools for citizen participation. Government Information Quarterly, 41(3), 101954. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.giq.2024.101954
Szedmák, B., Varga, L., & Szabó, R. Z. (2025). Digital transformation of public services: The case of the document management application. International Journal of Public Administration. Advance online publication. https://doi.org/10.1080/01900692.2025.2520522
Vaccari, C., & Valeriani, A. (2021). Outside the bubble: Social media and political participation in Western democracies. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Weigl, L., Roth, T., Amard, A., & Zavolokina, L. (2024). When public values and user-centricity in e-government collide: A systematic review. Government Information Quarterly, 41(3), 101956. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.giq.2024.101956
Willems, J., Schmid, M. J., Vanderelst, D., Vogel, D., & Ebinger, F. (2023). AI-driven public services and the privacy paradox: Do citizens really care about their privacy? Public Management Review, 25(11), 2116–2134. https://doi.org/10.1080/14719037.2022.2063934
Yang, C., McCann, P., & Zhao, S. (2024). Government in the digital age: Exploring the impact of digital transformation on governmental efficiency. Technological Forecasting and Social Change, 208, 123722. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.techfore.2024.123722
Zhang, J., & Mora, L. (2023). Nothing but symbolic: Chinese new authoritarianism, smart government, and the challenge of multi-level governance. Government Information Quarterly, 40(4), 101880. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.giq.2023.101880
Zhao, L., Ma, X., Jiao, S., & Hu, C. (2025). How WeChat groups enhance political trust in rural China: Evidence from the China Rural Revitalization Survey. Humanities and Social Sciences Communications, 12(1), 1–12. https://doi.org/10.1057/s41599-025-05331-8
Downloads
Published
Issue
Section
License

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License.
The philosophy of the journal is to be open and to make all articles accessible. It is our belief that open access is a must in the future of science.
Authors who publish with RCR accept a slightly modified Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 3.0 Unported License.
You, as author, retain the copyrights for your paper, but the Review of Communication Research is granted exclusivity for publication of the article. The agreement allows others to share the work with an acknowledgement of the work's authorship and publication in this journal. We do not want third parties to make a commercial use of the article, unless we agree it with authors.
The journal will run an open review process as well as a traditional peer review process.
When the manuscript is accepted for publication, it will get a doi number and get available online to facilitate early citation.
The journal will post the published article to many public repositories for further diffusion and permanence.
You, as author, are permitted and encouraged to post your work online (e.g., in institutional repositories or on your website), as it can lead to productive exchanges, as well as earlier and greater citation of published work.
If you have any doubts, please, contact the editor: editor@rcommunication.org
Many thanks for submitting your work to this journal.