Tag quantum computing

Celebrating Our Contribution to the 50th Anniversary of Government Information Quarterly

Anastasija Nikiforova Leave a comment

Marking a half-century of shaping the field, Government Information Quarterly (GIQ) celebrates 50 years as the leading journal in digital government research—and I am honored that our latest article, “Reflections on the Nature of Digital Government Research: Marking the 50th Anniversary of Government Information Quarterly,” forms part of this milestone issue constituting an editorial.

This collaborative piece brings together a group of scholars—Marijn Janssen, Hong Zhang, Adegboyega Ojo, Anastasija Nikiforova, Euripidis Loukis, Gabriela Viale Pereira, Hans J. Scholl, Helen Liu, Jaromir Durkiewicz, Laurie Hughes, Lei Zheng, Leonidas Anthopoulos, Panos Panagiotopoulos, Tomasz Janowski, and Yogesh K. Dwivedi—each offering a distinct perspective on how digital government research has evolved, diversified, and responded to societal and technological transformation.

A special thanks goes to Marijn Janssen, former Editor-in-Chief of GIQ, whose vision and coordination made this anniversary reflection possible.

Looking Back: Five Decades of Digital Government Research

Over 50 years, GIQ has chronicled—and often anticipated—the evolution of digital governance: from early computational systems to open government, data-driven innovation, smart cities, and the rise of AI.
Throughout these cycles, the journal has remained the field’s intellectual anchor, publishing research that tackles foundational public sector challenges while engaging with emerging technologies such as blockchain, quantum computing, IoT, AR/VR, and the Metaverse.

Several characteristics continue to define GIQ’s identity:

• Methodological and epistemological pluralism
GIQ’s hallmark is its openness to diverse paradigms, methods, and theoretical lenses. Rather than promoting a single theory of digital government, it invites multiple angles—qualitative, quantitative, mixed, conceptual, comparative—to analyze complex governance realities.

• “Blue-sky” thinking without hype
GIQ encourages forward-looking, innovative, and boundary-pushing ideas, while maintaining analytical discipline. This balance keeps the field visionary yet grounded.

• Impact rooted in both theory and practice
The journal has consistently insisted that strong methodology must lead to meaningful insights—advancing academic understanding while speaking directly to policymakers and practitioners.

• Clear communication to a broad audience
GIQ’s readership extends well beyond academia. With government, industry, and civil society looking to the journal for guidance, clarity and accessibility are essential. As Shakespeare famously said, “brevity is the soul of wit.”

What Our Anniversary Article Contributes

Our contribution synthesizes insights from leading experts to illuminate the nature, evolution, and future of digital government research.
Several overarching themes emerge:

  • epistemological pluralism and interdisciplinarity as fundamental characteristics of the field;
  • contextualized, value-driven, and practice-relevant research as the journal’s core strength;
  • digital transformation as a socio-technical phenomenon, where institutions, technology, data, governance models, and citizen expectations co-evolve;
  • the importance of studying both technology and context, avoiding the pitfalls of black-boxing either side of the equation;
  • GIQ’s role as a platform for blue-sky research, innovation, and rigorous theorization that remains relevant across countries and governance systems.

We dedicate this article to the late Professor Soon Ae Chun, former Co-Editor-in-Chief of GIQ.
Her leadership, scholarship, and unwavering commitment to quality and community have left an enduring mark on the field.

The 50-year anniversary of GIQ is more than a celebration. It is a reminder that the future of digital government research depends on openness: in methods, theories, communication, and imagination. As digital governance accelerates, the journal’s role as a bridge—between disciplines, between theory and practice, and between local realities and global insights—has never been more essential.

📢📜New paper alert! Framework for understanding quantum computing use cases from a multidisciplinary perspective and future research directions

Anastasija Nikiforova Leave a comment

This post is dedicated to the “Framework for understanding quantum computing use cases from a multidisciplinary perspective and future research directions” (Ukpabi, D.C., Karjaluoto, H., Botticher, A., Nikiforova, A., Petrescu, D.I., Schindler, P., Valtenbergs, V., Lehmann, L.) paper that just has been published in Futures journal (Elsevier, Q1 in both (1) Business and International Management, (2) Development, (3) Sociology and Political Science) in an open access.

Recently, there has been increasing awareness of the tremendous opportunities inherent in quantum computing. It is expected that the speed and efficiency of quantum computing will significantly impact the Internet of Things, cryptography, finance, and marketing. Accordingly, there has been increased quantum computing research funding from national and regional governments and private firms. However, critical concerns regarding legal, political, and business-related policies germane to quantum computing adoption exist. Therefore, recently a call for a framework from an interdisciplinary perspective has been made to help an understanding the potential impact of quantum computing on society, which is vital to improve strategic planning and management by governments and other stakeholders. The lack of such a framework is due to the fact that quantum computing per se is a highly technical domain, hence most of the existing studies focus heavily on the technical aspects of quantum computing. In contrast, our study highlights its practical and social uses cases, which are needed for the increased interest of governments. More specifically, our study took this call and offered a preliminary version of a framework for understanding the social, economic and political use cases of quantum computing, as well as identified possible areas of market disruption and offer empirically based recommendations that are critical for forecasting, planning, and strategically positioning QCs for accelerated diffusion, incl. definition of 52 Research Questions that will be critical for the adoption of quantum computing.


To this end, we conducted a gray literature research, whose outputs were structured in accordance with Dwivedi et al. (2021) that embodies environment, users, & application areas. We then validated through the discussing the findings with the quantum computing community at QWorld Quantum Science Days 2023 (QSD 2023) (on which I posted before 👉 here).

In short:

  • the hottest application areas are 🔥🔥🔥 business & finance, renewable energy, medicine & pharmaceuticals, & manufacturing 🔥🔥🔥;
  • at the level of environment – ecosystem, security, jurisprudence, institutional change & geopolitics;
  • users – customers, firms, countries or governments, to be more precise, with the reference to both national and local governments.

We then dived into these areas, and come up with the most popular & promising & overlooked topics, and as the very end-result, define 52 research questions, i.e., very specific things that are expected to be covered in the future to understand the current state-of-the-art, as well as transformations needed at various levels. The insights offered by various contributors from diverse disciplines – business, information systems, quantum computing, political science, and law offer a broad-based view of the potential of quantum computing to different aspects of our technological, economic, and social development. This framework is intended to help in identifying possible areas of market disruption offering empirically based recommendations that are critical for forecasting, planning, and strategically positioning prior to quantum computing emergence.

This is a truly a “happy end!” for the consortia that we built ~3 years ago – with Germany, Spain, Finland, Romania, and Latvia – while working on a project proposal to CHANSE call “Transformations: Social and Cultural Dynamics in the Digital Age”. We went there much far beyond my expectations, i.e. in fact, we were notified that this time we will not be granted the funding for the project at the very last stage, having gone through all those intermediate evaluation rounds, which were already fascinating news (at least for me). While working on the proposal and building our network, we conducted a preliminary analysis of the area, which then, regardless of the output of the application, we decided to continue and bring to at least some logical end. We like our result so decided to make it publicly available.

All in all, this is our warm welcome to read the paper -> here

And just in case you prefer a condensed version, you can just watch the video of the talk I delivered at QWorld Quantum Science Days 2023 (QSD 2023) 👇

References:

Dandison Ukpabi, Heikki Karjaluoto, Astrid Bötticher, Anastasija Nikiforova, Dragoş PETRESCU, Paulina Schindler, Visvaldis Valtenbergs, Lennard Lehmann, Framework for Understanding Quantum Computing Use Cases From A Multidisciplinary Perspective and Future Research Directions, Futures, 2023, 103277, ISSN 0016-3287, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.futures.2023.103277.

Dwivedi, Y. K., Ismagilova, E., Hughes, D. L., Carlson, J., Filieri, R., Jacobson, J., … & Wang, Y. (2021). Setting the future of digital and social media marketing research: Perspectives and research propositions. International Journal of Information Management, 59, 102168.

💬💬💬 Contributed talk for QWorld Quantum Science Days 2023 (QSD 2023)

Anastasija Nikiforova 1 Comment

In the very last days of May 2023, I had yet another experience – I delivered a contributed talk at QWorld Quantum Science Days 2023 (QSD 2023) titled “Framework for understanding quantum computing use cases from a multidisciplinary perspective and future research directions” (Ukpabi, D.C., Karjaluoto, H., Botticher, A., Nikiforova, A., Petrescu, D.I., Schindler, P., Valtenbergs, V., Lehmann, L., & Yakaryılmaz, A), which, in fact, is based on the paper we made publicly available some time ago and developed it even earlier when together with Germany, Spain, Finland, Romania, and Latvia we built a consortia and submitted a project proposal to CHANSE call “Transformations: Social and Cultural Dynamics in the Digital Age”. We went there much far beyond my expectations, i.e. in fact, we were notified that this time we will not be granted the funding for the project at the very last stage, having gone through all those intermediate evaluation rounds, which were already fascinating news (at least for me). While working on the proposal and building our network, we conducted a preliminary analysis of the area, which then, regardless of the output of the application, we decided to continue and bring to at least some logical end. We like our result so decided to make it publicly available. And now, a few years from that, we submitted our work to QWorld Quantum Science Days 2023 (QSD 2023) and were accepted. It was a big surprise, and I, as the person delegated by our team to present our study, delivered this talk, where I finally familiarized the audience with our findings. What was my surprise when my talk, which followed immediately after the keynote “Let’s talk about Quantum; Societal readiness through science communication research” delivered on behalf of Quantum DELTA NL by Julia Cramer, was in the very similar direction? It is also worth mentioning a very interesting coincidence that while the keynote elaborated on the DELTA that stands for five major quantum hubs, namely Delft, Eindhoven, Leiden, Twente, Amsterdam, I was preparing the last things for my presentation located in the Delta building – it is the name of the building my office is located in. In both cases, no connection with COVID-19 😀

🤔 What is the paper about?

There has been increasing awareness of the tremendous opportunities inherent in quantum computing. It is expected that the speed and efficiency of quantum computing will significantly impact the Internet of Things, cryptography, finance, and marketing. Accordingly, there has been increased quantum computing research funding from national and regional governments and private firms. However, ❗❗❗ critical concerns regarding legal, political, and business-related policies germane to quantum computing adoption exist ❗❗❗

Since this is an emerging and highly technical domain, most of the existing studies focus heavily on the technical aspects of quantum computing. In contrast, our study highlights its practical and social uses cases, which are needed for the increased interest of governments. More specifically, our study offers a multidisciplinary review of quantum computing, drawing on the expertise of scholars from a wide range of disciplines whose insights coalesce into a framework that simplifies the understanding of quantum computing, identifies possible areas of market disruption and offer empirically based recommendations that are critical for forecasting, planning, and strategically positioning QCs for accelerated diffusion.

"Framework for understanding quantum computing use cases from a multidisciplinary perspective and future research directions" (Ukpabi, D.C., Karjaluoto, H., Botticher, A., Nikiforova, A., Petrescu, D.I., Schindler, P., Valtenbergs, V., Lehmann, L., & Yakaryılmaz, A)

To this end, we conducted a gray literature research, whose outputs were then structured in accordance with Dwivedi et al., 2021 (Dwivedi et al. (2021). Setting the future of digital and social media marketing research: Perspectives and research propositions. International Journal of Information Management, 59, 102168), which embodies three broad areas—environment, users, and application areas—and the dominant sub-themes presented in figure below. We found that for application areas, business and finance, renewable energy, medicine & pharmaceuticals, and manufacturing are now the hottest. While for environment, we found subdomains such as ecosystem, security, jurisprudence, institutional change & geopolitics. And for the users, nothing surprising – as typically, customers, firms, countries. We then dive into each of those areas, as well as later come up with the most popular topics, the most promising, and overlooked.

Sounds interesting? Read the paper here, find slides here, watch video here.

Quantum Science Days is an annual, international, and virtual scientific conference organized by QWorld (Association) to provide opportunities to the quantum community to present and discuss their research results at all levels (from short projects to thesis work to research publications), and to get to know each other. The third edition (QSD2023) included 7 invited speakers, 10 thematic talks on “Building an Open Quantum Ecosystem”, 31 contributed talks, an industrial demo session by Classiq, and a career talk on quantum. QSD2023 was sponsored by Unitary Fund & Classiq and supported by Latvian Quantum Initiative.

Qworld

HackCodeX and my role of the Keynote speaker with “Data Quality as a prerequisite for business success: when should I start taking care of it?”

Anastasija Nikiforova Leave a comment

June 3-5, 2023 HackCodeX hackathon – a weekend-long experience, gathering tech enthusiasts from all over Europe to develop new ideas with the latest technology in a unique environment and atmosphere that serves as the meeting place for like-minded developers, designers, and business professionals eager to explore new paths – takes place. It will be accompanied by a one-day tech industry conference gathering international and local experts to discuss the key trends in technology and computing, where I act as one of those keynotes invited to deliver the talk devoted to the Data Quality that I entitled “Data Quality as a prerequisite for business success: when should I start taking care of it?”

A full weekend of hacking and catching up with more than 400 other tech heads in an atmosphere and spirit like no other.

Sounds interesting? 🗓️ 🗓️ 🗓️ Save the date! June 5, 2023 – topics focused on the key topics, such as emerging technologies, security and privacy, hardware and infrastructure, data quality, quantum technologies, as well as language and framework updates. From the growing interest in Artificial Intelligence to practical tips for securing software applications and dwelling into performance optimization – HackCodeX aims to inspire and provide new knowledge for tech experts of all levels. 

Stay tuned and do not miss the opportunity to attend and meet me there! Read more here -> https://www.hackcodex.eu/forum