Archive | 2021
Does High Cybersecurity Capability Lead to Openness in Digital Trade? The Mediation Effect of E-Government Maturity
Abstract
Cybersecurity risks are bringing new threats to digital trade, the cross-border transactions enabled by digital technologies. Governments are implementing fragmented, in-flux cybersecurity policies to regulate digital innovations. Organizations need to understand such a trend to align their global digital strategy. The lack of common understandings of cybersecurity within cross-border digital innovations, however, raises an increasing debate about whether and how cybersecurity capability building policies can impact digital trade restrictions. To answer this question, this study develops a National Cyber Trade Behavior model to examine the relation between national cybersecurity capability and digital trade restrictions. Utilizing the PLS-SEM based path analysis, we draw empirical evidences from 46 countries, which represent more than 80% of international trade in services, to verify the developed model. The results reveal that building cybersecurity capability can help to create an open digital trade system, not directly but mediated by E-government maturity. Beyond the theoretical contributions for information systems, digital trade, and e-government discipline, this study develops a governance framework for a secure and open digital trade system, and also supports business to effectively evaluate policy risks to align their global strategy with cross-border digital innovations.