Gregory M. Rose

Encouraging Citizen Adoption of E-Government by Building Trust

A b s t r a c t The growing interest in e-Government raises the question of how governments can increase citizen adoption and usage of their online government services. e-Government becomes especially important given its potential to reduce costs and improve service compared with alternative traditional modes. Citizen trust is proposed to be an important catalyst of e-Government adoption. By investigating online tax services, already available and used extensively in the West, we propose several ways in which governments can increase citizen trust and thus encourage the adoption of this new and potentially significant mode of government service. The proposed e-Government adoption model also takes in account issues of cultural variables, risk, control and technology acceptance. Institution-based trust, such as an independent judicial system with appropriate legal powers, is proposed to be the major tactic to build trust in e-Government. In addition, among new users of online government services, characteristic-based and cognitive-based antecedents should be crucial; general psychological dispositions and knowledge of the process should also engender trust. Among experienced users, on the other hand, it is suggested that the nature of previous interactions with the e-Government system should be the major predictor of trust, and hence of continued use. These propositions are elucidated, as they apply to different cultures and to highintrusive versus low-intrusive government services. This study has practical implications for the design of mechanisms for the adoption of e-Government.

The disruptive nature of information technology innovations: the case of internet computing in systems development organizations

Information technology (IT) innovation can be defined as the creation and new organizational application of digital computer and communication technologies. The paper suggests that IT innovation theory needs to be expanded to analyze IT innovations in kind that exhibit atypical discontinuities in IT innovation behaviors by studying two questions. First, can a model of disruptive IT innovations be created to understand qualitative changes in IT development processes and their outcomes so that they can be related to architectural discontinuities in computing capability? Second, to what extent can the observed turmoil among systems development organizations that has been spawned by Internet computing be understood as a disruptive IT innovation? To address the first question, a model of disruptive IT innovation is developed. The model defines a disruptive IT innovation as an architectural innovation originating in the information technology base that has subsequent pervasive and radical impacts on development processes and their outcomes. These base innovations establish necessary but not sufficient conditions for subsequent innovation behaviors. To address the second question, the impact of Internet computing on eight leading-edge systems development organizations in the United States and Finland is investigated. The study shows that the adoption of Internet computing in these firms has radically impacted their IT innovation both in development processes and services.

Information technology and organizational learning: a review and assessment of research

Abstract This paper reviews and assesses the emerging research literature on information technology and organizational learning. After discussing issues of meaning and measurement, we identify and assess two main streams of research: studies that apply organizational learning concepts to the process of implementing and using information technology in organizations; and studies concerned with the design of information technology applications to support organizational learning. From the former stream of research, we conclude that experience plays an important, yet indeterminate role in implementation success; learning is accomplished through both formal training and participation in practice; organizational knowledge barriers may be overcome by learning from other organizations; and that learning new technologies is a dynamic process characterized by relatively narrow windows of opportunity. From the latter stream, we conclude that conceptual designs for organizational memory information systems are a valuable contribution to artifact development; learning is enhanced through systems that support communication and discourse; and that information technologies have the potential to both enable and disable organizational learning. Currently, these two streams flow independently of each other, despite their close conceptual and practical links. We advise that future research on information technology and organizational learning proceeds in a more integrated fashion, recognizes the situated nature of organizational learning, focuses on distributed organizational memory, demonstrates the effectiveness of artifacts in practice, and looks for relevant research findings in related fields.

Cultural Diversity and Trust in IT Adoption: A Comparison of Potential e-Voters in the USA and South Africa

To trust means to have expectations about others’ (the trustees’) socially acceptable behavior. One of the central effects of this trust in the context of IT adoption is to increase the perceived usefulness (PU) of Information Technology (IT) associated with the trustee’s agency. One way of increasing this trust is through greater sociocultural similarity. Taking previous research into the realm of electronic voting, this paper posits that because trust is culture-dependent, it should decrease considerably as cultural diversity and differentiation increases. To investigate the role of trust in IT adoption in different cultures where dissimilar concepts of socially acceptable behavior exist, this study compares trust-related perceptions of an emerging IT (i.e., electronic voting) between the United States of America (USA) and the Republic of South Africa (RSA). More specifically, the question was addressed by comparing the unique circumstances of the cultural changes in the RSA with the more socially integrated mainstream USA culture. In both cultures, a perceived sociocultural similarity between the individual and the agency in charge of the electronic voting IT contributed to both the establishment of trust and to an increase in the perceived usefulness of the IT, supporting and extending the extrapolations of past propositions to this new realm. However, only in the USA did trust contribute to the PU of the IT. The results suggest that when cultural diversity is large, trust becomes of lesser importance, perhaps because it can no longer reduce social uncertainty. Implications for researchers and governmental voting agencies are discussed, and future research directions are proposed.

Culture and consumer responses to web download time: a four-continent study of mono and polychronism

Most e-commerce sites would like to include as much relevant and sales-inducing content on their pages as possible. Unfortunately, resulting download delays may lead to consumer frustration and a negative attitude toward the product or service displayed. But is frustration with download delay a universal problem or is it culture-specific? How should firms view this problem? These are the primary research questions investigated in the current study. An experiment conducted on four continents was selected as an appropriate research method to answer those questions. Country sites were selected for differing cultural senses of time and how this might affect individual responses to download delay. Our sample included the US and Finnish cultures representing monochronic cultures and Egyptian and Peruvian cultures representing polychronic cultures. Consistent with the proposed hypotheses, subjects from polychronic cultures were significantly less concerned with download delays than subjects in monochronic cultures. Similarly, perceived wait times varied significantly between the mono- and polychronic groups. Practical insights derived from this study enable specific suggestions on customization of web page content richness as well as infrastructure requirements based on the cultural identity of the intended e-Consumer. Moreover, results suggest theoretical implications for future research.

The Effect of Download Time on Consumer Attitude Toward the e-Service Retailer

Download time has been recognized as one of the most important technological impediments to electronic commerce (EC). Unfortunately, the exact consequences of this impediment are currently ill-defined. The goal of this study is to extend the work of Rose (2000) and Rose and Straub (1999) to examine how the capabilities of technological delivery impacts the success or failure of EC initiatives. Using theories from marketing and the systems response time literature, it is hypothesized that download delay in an e-Service retailers Web application has a negative impact on consumer attitude toward that Web retailer. Counter to anecdotal evidence in the press and our theoretical arguments, results from a laboratory experiment do not support this stance. Interpretations of this outcome, new research directions to tease out a deeper explanation, and managerial implications are discussed.

The Brave New World of development in the internetwork computing architecture (InterNCA): Or how distributed computing platforms will change systems development

This essay is a speculation of the impact of the next generation technological platform — the internetwork computing architecture (InterNCA) — on systems development. The impact will be deep and pervasive and more substantial than when computing migrated from closed computer rooms to ubiquitous personal computers and flexible client‐server solutions. Initially, by drawing upon the notion of a technological frame, the InterNCA, and how it differs from earlier technological frames, is examined. Thereafter, a number of hypotheses are postulated with regard to how the architecture will affect systems development content, scope, organization and processes. Finally, some suggestions for where the information systems research community should focus its efforts (if the call for relevance is not to be taken lightly) are proposed.

Disruptive information system innovation: the case of internet computing

Abstract.  Information system (IS) innovation can be defined as a novel organizational application of digital computer and information communication technologies (ICT). This paper discusses how modalities of applying ICT technologies in their form and scope exhibit radical breaks, which are introduced herein as ‘disruptive IS innovations’. This notion of disruptive IS innovation is developed by drawing upon and extending Swansons (1994) theory of IS innovation as well as the concept of radical innovation. Disruptive innovations strongly influence the future trajectory of the adoption and use of ICT in organizational contexts and make the trajectory deviate from its expected course. In doing so, these disruptive innovations distinctly define what an IS is and how it is deployed in order to address current and future organizational and managerial prerogatives. Such changes are triggered breakthroughs in the capability of ICT that lead to the revision and expansion of associated cognitive models (frames) of computing. Disruptive IS innovations are those that lead to changes in the application of ICT that are both pervasive and radical. The pervasive nature implies that innovative activity spans all innovation subsets of the quad‐core model of IS innovation introduced herein. Innovation types include: IS use and development processes; application architecture and capability; and base technologies. Radical in nature, disruptive is innovations depart in significant ways from existing alternatives and lead to deviation from expected use and diffusion trajectory. This paper demonstrates the importance of a concept of disruptive IS innovation by investigating how changes triggered by internet computing (Lyytinen et al., 1998) meet the conditions of a disruptive IS innovation defined herein. The analysis also affirms both the pervasive and radical nature of internet computing and explains how internet computing has fundamentally transformed the application portfolio, development practices and IS services over time. The analysis demonstrates that, with the concept of disruptive IS innovation, we can fruitfully analyse ‘long’ waves of ICT evolution – an issue that has largely been overlooked in the IS community. On a theoretical plane, the paper advocates the view that we need to look beyond linear, unidirectional, and atomistic concepts of the diffusion of IS innovations where innovative activity takes places in a linear fashion by oscillating between small technological innovations and small organizational innovations. In contrast, IS innovation can exhibit fundamental discontinuity; we need to theoretically grasp such disruptive moments. The recent influx of innovation, spurred by internet‐based technology, offers one such moment.

A knowledge-based model of radical innovation in small software firms

In this paper, we adopt the lens of absorptive capacity (ACAP), defined by two dimensions--the knowledge base (consisting of knowledge diversity, depth, and linkages) and routines (consisting of sensing and experimentation)--to explain how a software firms knowledge endowments influence its level of radical information technology innovation during a technological breakthrough. We distinguish three types of IT innovations--base, processes, and service innovation--that form an innovation ecology. We posit that (1) ACAP is a relational construct where the impact of the knowledge base is mediated by routines; (2) IT innovations are either externally adopted or internally generated; and (3) knowledge antecedents associated with different types of innovations differ. We hypothesize a three-step, mediated path (knowledge base → sensing → experimentation → innovation) for external innovation adoption, and a two-step path (knowledge diversity/depth → experimentation → innovation) for internal innovation creation to explain the software firms level of radical innovation across three IT innovation types. We validate the model through a cross-sector study that examined how 121 small software firms innovated with Internet computing. We confirm the mediated nature of ACAP for external base innovations, which are driven by all three knowledge-based factors as follows: (1) knowledge depth (direct positive effect); (2) knowledge diversity (mediated three-step path), (3) knowledge linkages (mediated three step path). Process innovations are externally driven by a three-step mediated path for knowledge linkages, as well as being directly affected by knowledge diversity, but negatively and directly impeded by knowledge depth. Service innovations are not driven by any mediated influence of ACAP, but driven directly by knowledge diversity. At the same time, both service and process innovations are strongly influenced by prior IT innovations: base and/or service. Several directions for future studies of radical IT innovation are proposed.

Internet computing as a disruptive information technology innovation: the role of strong order effects

A cross‐sector survey study was conducted between 2004 and 2005 among 121 software firms that adopted internet computing for the presence of strong order effects, which explain how, why and in which order radical innovations in information system (IS) are adopted. The following strong order effects were detected: (1) the amount of base innovations positively and directly influenced the amount of service innovation and the amount of process innovation, while the amount of service innovation partially mediates the impact of base innovation on process innovation; (2) the radicalness of base innovations directly and positively influences the radicalness of service innovation, while the impact of the radicalness of the base innovation on the radicalness of process innovations is fully mediated by the radicalness of service innovation; (3) the predominant sequence of initial adoption of radical information technology innovations is first in base innovations, followed by service innovations and finally by process innovations. Our study helps to better understand how and why radical innovations are adopted in ensembles by software firms. In consequence, software organizations should orchestrate flexible innovation strategies that recognize that radical innovations are interconnected and heterogeneous.