Who Says Service Improved? Digital Leadership and Public Service Quality in Local Government Review

Abstract

Local governments are widely expected to improve public services through digital leadership, yet the evidence behind that expectation has not been mapped. This scoping review establishes how digital leadership is conceptualised, measured and linked to public service quality at the subnational level. Following Joanna Briggs Institute guidance and reported per PRISMA-ScR, we searched Scopus for English-language articles, reviews and conference papers published between 2020 and 2026. Two reviewers screened 113 records independently with senior arbitration, and charted the 18 included studies across 46 fields. We classified outcomes using the e-GovQual taxonomy and interpreted them through Public Service Logic. Half the studies use digital leadership without defining it, at least eight labels circulate, and no measurement instrument appears more than once. Fifteen of eighteen studies derive outcomes from officials' self-reports and none from citizens, and no study designates trust, the dimension covering data security and privacy, as a principal outcome. Ten studies specify mechanisms without testing them. This literature therefore documents an association between officials' perceptions rather than evidence of improved services. Advancing it requires reusing validated instruments, measuring at least one outcome dimension from citizens, and testing mechanisms that are at present only described.