Rafia Naz

E-governance for improved public sector service delivery in India, Ethiopia and Fiji

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to explore the extent of corruption in India, Fiji and Ethiopia and survey citizen perception of how e‐governance could fight corruption. The main objective is to investigate and explore the potential of e‐governance applications in three countries representing three different regions of Asia, Africa, and Oceania.Design/methodology/approach – A survey was conducted over 918 citizens in India, Ethiopia and Fiji using convenience random sampling. A structured questionnaire was used. The main emphasis of the survey was on citizen perception about corruption and poor service. It further asked respondents on how e‐governance can cut corruption.Findings – Benefits of e‐governance in developing countries are the same as those in developed countries but there are many potential benefits that remain unreaped by developing countries as a consequence of their unlimited use of e‐governance. Based on these assertions, the researchers tried to evaluate and assess the potential of ...

Issues faced by SMEs in the internationalization process: results from Fiji and Samoa

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to scrutinize the issues, challenges, and impediments coming in the way of small‐ and medium‐sized enterprises (SMEs) internationalization in small developing nations of South Pacific like Fiji and Samoa.Design/methodology/approach – The paper encompasses both quantitative and qualitative data. Analyses of antecedents are descriptive in nature, while establishing the relationship between intervening variables and outcomes are quantitative. For quantitative data, structured questionnaires are used, while for the collection of qualitative data, archival and library research methods are employed. Structured questionnaire is used to collect data from 118 and 78 sampled respondents in Fiji and Samoa, respectively, and statistical analysis is performed using Statistical Package for the Social Sciences package.Findings – These research findings pinpoint that the problem lies in evaluating the nature of issues affecting internationalization of SMEs. The results also show tha...

E-governance to cut corruption in public service delivery: a case study of Fiji

Abstract Experience in a number of developed and developing countries has shown that E-Governance initiatives can promote greater transparency with the goal of cutting corruption. This article examines perceptions of public service delivery in Fiji to explore the potential of E-Governance to cut corruption and improve governance. Based on a survey of community perceptions and a review of selected literature it suggests that service-delivery oriented IT initiatives can contribute to an effective, multi-pronged strategy to cut corruption in the Fiji public sector.

Citizens' perceptions of corruption and e-governance in Jordan, Ethiopia and Fiji - the need for a marketing approach

The purpose of this research is to assess citizen’s perceptions of corruption and e-governance in Jordan, Ethiopia and Fiji. The research is based on surveys using structured questionnaires and focus group interviews. Conclusions are derived from a mix of descriptive and inferential analysis. The survey covers a total of 1212 respondents using stratified sampling. Findings reveal that public-sector corruption and demands for bribes are increasing in each country. Only a few people are aware of e-governance and feel that it can help in curbing corruption. The study proposes that to mitigate negative forces in the implementation of e-governance such as corruption, digital divide and urban bias, developing countries need to apply a marketing approach to e-governance services.

Digital Divide within Society: An Account of Poverty, Community and E-Governance in Fiji

The importance and potential of information and communication technologies (ICTs) to develop economies has been demonstrated through various studies around the globe. For the Pacific, especially Fiji, where development is hampered by dispersed populations, small sizes and vast ocean distances, ICT can help overcome these restrictive circumstances, of digital divide within society, by empowering the poor. An attempt is made to illustrate that, despite various initiatives and strategies designed by the governments in power, poverty in Fiji is still daunting and has in fact increased by almost 33% over the last 10 years. Therefore, it becomes prudent to look at government policies and e-governance initiatives in Fiji and analyze the reasons as to why results are not being achieved at the grass-roots level. Based on findings from a rapid appraisal among various stakeholders, the article highlights that e-governance initiative thus far could not be largely effective due to lack of participatory processes in e-governance and ICT practices. Community perception of e-governance and understanding of the issue are explored and it is argued that public awareness of e-governance is critical for projects to work. Along with this, some critical constraints facing e-governance in Fiji, with an emphasis on the role of community involvement to reduce poverty at the grass-roots level, are discussed. Solutions of citizen-centered e-governance are stressed and a down-to-earth approach to poverty is highlighted. This article asks for paradigm shifts in governments perception to see society as partners of governance and not merely recipients of state policies and service delivery systems. It raises the issue of community involvement in dialogue and decision making at the public policy and practice levels by making government departments reachable to stakeholders by harnessing the potential of ICT, new technologies and media. It also talks about the need to bridge information-data gaps and lapses which lead to inappropriate planning and decision making divorced from sharable scientific statistical data amongst the government departments and planning agencies. It emphasizes shared visions for strategies both at horizontal and vertical levels of planning and management in e-governance.

Public service delivery in Fiji, Solomon Islands and Papua New Guinea: analysing quality in public services

Public service delivery and customer satisfaction in South Pacific region appears to have received relatively little attention. The main objectives of this paper are to get deeper understanding of the relationships between quality of services and the citizens satisfaction, find out status of service quality of public services and customer satisfaction, and identify the most significant attributes that satisfy their needs. The results obtained from the Fiji, Solomon Islands and Papua New Guinea confirm some of those obtained in the academic literature in finding that the quality that the consumer/citizen perceives influences their satisfaction in a positive and significant way.

Public Sector Reforms in Fiji: Examining Policy Implementation Setting and Administrative Culture

For many years, public management reform has been an evolving concept. New Public Management (NPM) and Good Governance have been the two ground–breaking ideas, generating colossal discourse over the past three decades. Inspired by NPM-led policy changes in the developed world, many developing countries have lately joined the reform bandwagon but achieved limited success. Policy analysts observe that the policy planners in the developing world seem to have spent more resources in policymaking than addressing the policy implementation challenges. Also, the policy transfer effort ignored the issue of administrative culture. Focusing on Fiji, this article examines how the countrys recent public sector reform initiatives have largely failed to bring about expected results. Based on the case studies of two organizations, it explains that the success and failure of policy change occurs in several ways, manifesting multiple challenges including a lack of well-prepared implementation framework and culture change.

E-government prospects and challenges in Fiji

This paper seeks to investigate e-government prospects and challenges in Fiji Islands. The research used both secondary and primary data sources to examine e-government prospects and challenges in Fiji. While secondary review of data were used, some primary data have supplemented them to reach the findings of the study. The key finding of the study is that e-government is employed with the objective to provide timely and hassle free services to citizens; however, successful diffusion throughout Fiji is still a challenging issue. This is troubled by problems related to technology, laws, regulations and human resources among other constraints. The study concludes that despite the diffusion challenges, e-government in the country still holds better prospects provided new elected government pays attention to properly investing in infrastructural development, capacity building and other important areas.

Challenges of using marketing information system (MkIS) by SMEs in Fiji

The intention of this paper is to scrutinise the factors impacting small and medium enterprises (SMEs) eBusiness adoption and the challenges faced pertaining to the usage of marketing information system (MkIS) in Fiji and subsequently stress the potential solutions for those challenges. Structured questionnaire was used to collect data from the SMEs from five major towns in Fiji. A sample of 96 SMEs was surveyed sequentially. The research findings reveal that, SMEs in Fiji face massive challenges in employing MkIS. This result also illustrates that the challenges faced by SMEs in Fiji positively influence the use of marketing information system and alternatively ascertain the potential solutions which the SMEs acquires in order to overcome those challenges. Findings have also revealed that the level of SME eBusiness adoption is not the same as ICT adoption in Fiji.