With the growing technology, population and public services, there is a need for efficient transactions with safety and security in e-governance applications. This study proposes a blockchain supported e-governance digital identity management framework incorporated with gig-economy strategy and service innovation tools that could enhance the existing e-governance process. The proposed conceptual model is validated through expert interviews and fuzzy logic. The process is comprehensive and involves applying the opinions of experts, as well as confirming the rules used for the fuzzy inference system through a questionnaire to obtain a more profound understanding of opinions. The result of the fuzzy logic algorithm indicates that to ensure the individuals' identity is safe and secure, the e-governance applications must integrate blockchain technology, and to make identity management more efficient, there needs to augmentation of service innovation and the gig-economy model. Based on the result of this study, the academicians need to focus on new theoretical and conceptual frameworks in enhancing the usage of blockchain technology integrated with the latest technologies such as AI, ML and Metaverse. The government needs to understand that bringing innovative service models and incorporating the gig economy could help in determining secure and cost-effective transactions, and can be used for framing the models in other industries. The proposed model yielded the highest efficiency scores and better results compared to the existing models in the literature in terms of enhanced productivity and performance. Compared to other studies, this study emphasizes the importance of managing resources through the gig economy, and frequent innovations with secured blockchain would result in enhanced transactions.
Technology transformation is fast occurring globally across sectors, leading to a competitive business environment. Every industry, irrespective of the type of business, has an objective to be an early mover, and hence, they diversify their business strategies. On the other hand, customers expectations and requirements are marching towards personalized comfort without compromises. Every manager aspires to sustain for a longer period. In that case, to sustain itself as a market leader among competing organizations, it has to focus on innovation in technological and non-technological aspects, and hence there evolved co-creation among researchers, academicians, and practitioners evolved. However, this is not the situation with government organizations and agencies, as their motive is to provide public welfare schemes to the masses at a lower cost.
Most governments worldwide have successfully implemented their public welfare schemes using Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) termed E-Governance (Ojo, 2014; Basu et al., 2023a). The success of providing services such as healthcare, education, social justice, food safety and security, first aid and prevention of disease, policies and legal support etc. in developed countries has motivated the governments in developing countries to provide similar services and enhance their quality for their citizens. According to Dawes (2008) and Business Jargons, (2019), E-Governance is a bureaucratic process of providing simple, moral, accountable, responsive, and transparent governance to the citizens, businesses, and others that helps in the reduction of corruption and at the same time provides services to the masses. Further, the politicians and government employees influence can be reduced through online transactions and comfortable with record keeping. For citizens, the technology allows them to access the service at their convenience, provide deeper knowledge, access from any location, and multitask without affecting the quality at less cost, resource, and manpower (Kumar et al., 2021; Raza, 2024; Nair et al., 2023). E-governance application also helps the government in managing the economic activities at macro and micro-level environments, from fiscal to monetary policies, social upliftment, increase in individual per capita income, lifestyle, environment and wildlife management. Specifically, it helps in the reduction of costs and exclusively provides personalized services (Dasgupta, 2021; Basu et al., 2023b).
However, the usage of electronic communication technologies such as the internet and other digital tools for enhancing the effectiveness and efficiency of government operations and public services has several gaps to be addressed, especially concerns like privacy and security when it comes to individuals' digital identity management (Basu, 2004; Wang, 2024). One of the key drawbacks of technology, especially in developing nations, is the digital divide, the availability of technological devices or knowledge to very few people and not others. This creates a situation where only a certain set of the population can access the services online, thereby causing a hindrance to others from participating in democratic processes. Further, the usage of technology in governance could also increase the risk of cyberattacks and data breaches, for which governments must be cautious in the security and protection of sensitive information. One additional requirement is the digital literacy of the citizens. Appropriate knowledge to access and use the government-launched services. Lack of knowledge and compatibility leads to the exclusion from the e-governance benefits, especially those for the unfortified groups like the elderly, low-income and people in poverty (Bwalya, 2009). For example, in developing countries like India, where the population is a major concern, not having an appropriate, adequate infrastructure is also a serious concern. To create and ensure trust among the citizens, the government has to be accountable and incorporate suitable infrastructure like providing high-speed internet, advanced hardware and software, electricity, and be updated with the latest technology and provide awareness continuously.
There are numerous technologies and software introduced and managed to address the day-to-day requirements. However, academics and researchers favored certain technologies compared to others by conducting deeper research and industrial suggestions (Wang and Chen, 2024). For example, very few literature works discuss blockchain technology (a decentralized transaction database mechanism since its emergence in 2008) compared to artificial intelligence, machine learning, metaverse etc. Blockchain technology was originally invented to support the decentralized financial transaction known as cryptocurrency named Bitcoin; however later it has been adopted for various other applications (Alla et al., 2018; Rana et al., 2022; Nair et al., 2023). Three generations of blockchain technology have been identified by Efanov and Roschin, (2017) as namely: (1) digital currency, (2) digital economy and (3) digital society. The first generation is the digital currency, which is the platform of underlying protocols and digital contracts. The second generation is the digital economy, whereby a variety of economic and financial payments, transfers and transactions occur, such as loans, mortgages, stocks, bonds, derivatives, as well as legal instruments (Nuryyev et al., 2021). It also includes an additional feature of computer-assisted smart contracts, where the related parties to the contracts can automatically make transparent payments as per the contract without any manual form filings. The latest generation is the digital society which refers to the wide use of applications beyond money, currency, commerce, financial instruments, or any other economic activity instead it includes art, health, science, education, governance and other aspects of communication and culture (Swan, 2015; Kaur et al., 2022; Manohar et al., 2023; Wang, 2023). Blockchain has a tremendous success record concerning the applicability of digital identity database management. Digital Identity Management (DIM) is the process of managing and maintaining the individuals' complete information recorded/collected from various sources, further processing, storing and retrieval for future usage securely and safely in digital form (Samir, 2021).
Though blockchain technology is looked at for its benefits, there are also some negative sides. The major drawbacks are implementation at a higher level, interoperability, alignment with other technologies and scalability. Several recent studies (Liu et al., 2023; Yusuf et al., 2023; Sikder, 2023) have also emphasized that there is a need for a secure platform for digital governance to deliver public services, as government agencies and departments would be sharing and using sensitive data. Taking this as a motive, this study examines options in integrating innovations and gig-economy practices in existing blockchain-enabled digital identity management. The paper proposes that adopting/incorporating would enhance the trust among the customers. This study proposes an enhanced Blockchain supported e-governance digital identity management framework (DIMF) that helps ensure the confidentiality of individual information. Further, the study also helps to understand how Gig-Economy Implementation and Service Innovation Models could increase the productivity and efficiency of existing e-governance processes.