Different countries-different paths extended comparison of the introduction of eIDs in eight European countries

A first comparison of the innovation processes of introducing electronicidentities on a national level in Austria, Belgium, Germany and Spain, based onextensive expert interviews with key actors, has been amended by four more countryreports from Denmark, Finland, Estonia and Sweden in order to check the validity ofgeneralisations derived from the first four cases. The extended comparison with thefour additional countries increases the variance between the eID systems in Europeby showing differing technical and organisational features, such as purely softwarebasedsolutions, e.g. in Denmark, or complete outsourcing of the eIDMs, e.g. inSweden. In the second part of the paper, the conceptual framework of thecomparative study, a combination of path analysis, institutional actor theory andpolicy field analysis will be reflected. It has resulted in a fruitful approach allowingfor the explanation of some, but by no means all, of the differences between thenational eIDMs in Europe