The design and use of a digital PMS, and the emergence of gaming logic: the experience of the Italian Ministry of Culture

The analysis of digital transformation processes by governments has increasingly attracted attention from academics and practitioners, but it has been less frequently investigated from an accounting perspective. This chapter investigates the complex process of designing and using a digital performance measurement system (PMS) in a central government, empirically exploring the case of the Italian Ministry of Culture, which enacted a reform to provide central and peripheral units with a system to monitor the reputation of state museums, leveraging real-time user-generated data (UGD). The study shows that the design and use of a digital PMS is characterised by the complexity of choosing and interpreting the algorithm to analyse UGD, which may stimulate gaming logic by the actors who are held accountable through the digital PMS. These findings contribute to a broader discussion on the accounting and accountability implications of adopting a digital PMS in the public sector.