There appear to be three main categories of researchers – large intergovernmental organizations and multinational corporations (such as the UN, OECD, and major consulting firms), academic institutions and nonprofit research centers (some involving multi-organizational partnerships), and individual scholars. The large-scale projects are usually geared toward generating broad coverage of universal topics or practical knowledge to be used as a guide to furthering economic development and efficient incorporation of IT into public management. The smallest scale projects are usually conducted as part of traditional academic research activities without special funding, although there are exceptions depending on the scale of the project.

Intergovernmental organizations like OECD and the United Nations focus strongly on topics related to furthering the modernization of public administration around the world, but primarily in developing and emerging economies. Their interests lie in examining the role of electronic and mobile governments as a tool for meeting public sector reform agendas such as good governance, democracy, and inclusion. OECD produces a wide range of publications including best practices, framework development, and comparative studies.

Regional intergovernmental organizations conduct comparative and best practices studies, and, because most of them are organized with the purpose of enhancing the economic development of their regions, the studies are usually aimed at this aspect of digital government. The European Commission conducts studies of member countries or for the benefit of member countries sometimes drawing lessons or comparisons from additional countries of similar cultural or economic status.

Academic research represents the broadest range of topics, methods, and approaches to international digital government issues. No particular theme dominates, but rather, the variety of topics reflects the multidisciplinary nature of this study domain. We found several academic research centers in the US, EU, and Asia with units focused specifically on digital government research, including international projects or papers.

Independent think tanks, such as the Commonwealth Center, and several large multi-national companies, such as Accenture and SAP, conduct their own programs of international DG research. This research is usually done in-house. Accenture, for example, has conducted an annual benchmarking study of over 180 countries concentrating on the development of digital government capabilities worldwide. In addition, EC-funded research projects often include research partners from industry as members of large multi-disciplinary project teams.