Vishanth Weerakkody

E-government adoption: A cultural comparison

E-government diffusion is an international phenomenon. This study compares e-government adoption in the U.K. to adoption in the U.S. In particular, this study seeks to determine if the same factors are salient in both countries. Several studies have explored citizen acceptance of e-government services in the U.S. However, few studies have explored this phenomenon in the U.K. To identify the similarities and differences between the U.K. and the U.S. a survey is conducted in the U.K. and the findings are compared to the literature that investigates diffusion in the U.S. This study proposes a model of e-government adoption in the U.K. based on salient factors in the U.S. A survey is administered to 260 citizens in London to assess the importance of relative advantage, trust and the digital divide on intention to use e-government. The results of binary logistic regression indicate that there are cultural differences in e-government adoption in the U.K. and the U.S. The results indicate that of the prevailing adoption constructs, relative advantage and trust are pertinent in both the U.S. and the U.K., while ICT adoption barriers such as access and skill may vary by culture. Implications for research and practice are discussed.

Transformational change and business process reengineering (BPR): Lessons from the British and Dutch public sector

Abstract Facilitated by electronic government, public agencies are looking for transformational change by making a radical improvement. At first glance, this development is similar to the business process re-engineering (BPR) movement in the private sector. While policy makers and practitioners in the public sector have branded their recent improvements as BPR, the academic and research community have thus far eluded from making any comparisons. This has left a vacuum in terms of understanding the complexity of the challenges facing e-Government re-engineering and resultant change in public agencies. The aim of this paper is to translate the BPR movement findings to the field of e-Government induced change in the public sector. BPR characteristics and challenges are derived using normative literature and compared with two cases of public sector transformation in the UK and Netherlands. The results of these cases show that e-Government-induced change requires a plan for a radical improvement which, in contrast to BPR, is obtained by incremental steps and has a high level of participation. The findings offer policy makers valuable insights into the complexities and possible strategies that may need to be followed in order to succeed in e-Government implementation.

Moving from E-Government to T-Government: A Study of Process Reengineering Challenges in a UK Local Authority Context

The UK government is striving towards a vision for government-wide transformation, in which local authorities and central government departments are endeavouring to work with each other to deliver better services to citizens via a one-stop-shop environment for all services under the guise of electronic government (e-government). Having successfully e-enabled customer facing processes, the UK government is now working towards reengineering and e-enabling back office processes and information systems to facilitate more joined-up and citizen centric e-government services; these efforts are referred to as the transformational stage of e-government or T-Government. This paper seeks to explore what T-Government means to local authorities in the UK and what process related challenges have to be overcome to successfully implement transformational change in local government.

The diffusion and use of institutional theory: A cross-disciplinary longitudinal literature survey

There is a plethora of theories to explore the disciplines of business, management and sociology, with institutional theory being widely used to explore a range of research challenges. In the area of Information Systems (IS), the use of institutional theory remains in its infancy, with much potential for adoption. Much of the rationale underpinning the proposed research is that a systematic review and synthesis of the normative literature may support the direction of further research and the use of institutional theory in exploring pertinent research challenges facing the IS community. This study also serves to signpost cross-disciplinary research, and thus opens up a whole new research paradigm. Therefore, this article seeks to provide a bibliometric analysis and a comprehensive and systematic review of the literature pertaining to institutional theory to ascertain the current ‘state of play’ of the theory. Information on a series of variables was extracted after conducting a review of 511 articles across various disciplines that have utilised institutional theory, published in 210 peer-reviewed journals between 1978 and 2008. The findings suggest that the positivist paradigm, empirical and quantitative research, the survey method and organisation/firm as a unit of analysis was used predominantly in combination with institutional theory. The results of this study may have implications for researchers, journal editors, reviewers and universities.

Analyzing the role of stakeholders in the adoption of technology integration solutions in UK local government: An exploratory study

Abstract Over the last decade many governments across the world have intensified their efforts to improve efficiency of public services through Information and Communication Technology (ICT)-enabled transformation of Local Government Authorities (LGAs). Many of these efforts involve implementing new Information Systems and Technology (IS/IT) and integrating various disparate legacy systems to deliver improved services. While there is a surfeit of literature that have outlined the various organizational and technical challenges posed by Technology Integration Solutions (TIS), few studies have examined the role of stakeholders and surrounding challenges when implementing TIS in LGAs. The TIS adoption process involves several stakeholders, each with specific domain knowledge and expertise that are crucial to the success of TIS projects. In this paper, the authors use the concept of stakeholder theory to analyze the role of stakeholders during the TIS adoption process with regards to their perceptions on the factors influencing TIS adoption in LGAs and their involvement on the adoption lifecycle phases. A qualitative multiple case study approach is adopted to empirically highlight the different categories of stakeholders involved in the TIS adoption process, the dynamic nature and importance of their role, and why their domain knowledge and expertise are vital for TIS projects.

Examining the influence of intermediaries in facilitating e-government adoption: An empirical investigation,

Abstract The adoption and diffusion of electronic government is often impeded by many social and individual factors relating to citizens. In this respect, intermediaries have emerged as a new model for delivering e-government services to overcome such obstacles. This study aims to examine the role of intermediaries in facilitating e-government adoption and diffusion using a survey based empirical study of 502 participants in Madinah City in Saudi Arabia. An extended UTAUT model is used as the theoretical basis utilizing trust in the Internet and Intermediaries. The results of this study show that there are significant relationships among the factors that influence intention to use e-government, namely, performance expectancy, effort expectancy, and trust of intermediary. In addition, the findings show that there is a significant relationship between facilitating conditions and usage behavior proving that intermediaries can influence adoption of e-government services.

Examining the Factors Affecting the Adoption of Broadband in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia

This paper empirically examines the reasons for the slow progress in broadband adoption in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA) and investigates the factors that may be affecting the adoption of broadband by KSA consumers. Particular emphasis was placed on individual level factors such as social and cultural influences. The key findings were that the factors with the main influence on attitude towards adoption of broadband were usefulness, service quality, age, usage, type of connection and type of accommodation. The paper also provides a discussion on research implications, limitations and future directions.

Realising integrated e‐government services: a UK local government perspective

Purpose – This paper seeks to explore the challenges that local government face in the UK when implementing fully integrated electronic public services.Design/methodology/approach – A case study based research approach using interviews with employees and citizens in a large local authority was utilised to examine both the government and citizens perspective of electronic government (e‐government) and related service improvement efforts.Findings – From a theoretical perspective, process and information systems integration are identified in the literature as key challenges for enabling fully functional e‐government services. However, empirical research in this paper highlights that broader issues of technical, political, and organisational origin are of equal importance but tend to be overlooked in practice.Research limitations/implications – Although the empirical research discussed in this paper is limited to one local authority, its size, geographic location and ethnic diversity makes the local authorit...

Research Trends in Knowledge Management: Analyzing the Past and Predicting the Future

Through a meta-data analysis of the literature over a 34-year period, this article aims to provide a review and investigation into the knowledge management field in terms of how the domain is represented along a number of dimensions including unit of analysis, research paradigm employed, and the research topics/issues investigated. Information on a series of variables was extracted after conducting a review of 1,043 articles on KM, published in various peer-reviewed journals between 1974–2008. The findings suggest that a combination of positivist, empirical, conceptual/descriptive, and multi-method approaches have been predominantly used in the area. Organizational as well as systems and environmental context-based KM research were found to be the most widely published topics within the KM domain. Further, the authors identified literature gaps that require more exploration and conceptual refinement in the context of knowledge management research.

Exploring the complexities of e‐government implementation and diffusion in a developing country: Some lessons from the State of Qatar

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to explore empirically the complexities of e‐government implementation and diffusion from a developing country perspective.Design/methodology/approach – An empirical case study using an interview‐based research agenda is adopted. After reviewing the extant literature on e‐government, the paper first proposes a conceptual model, which is consequently used to explore empirically, within the State of Qatar, the key challenges influencing e‐government implementation and diffusion from organisational, technological, social and political perspectives.Findings – The conceptual model proposed in this study offers a comprehensive overview of the implementation and diffusion challenges of e‐government through identifying various factors associated with organisational, technological, social and political perspectives from the literature. Through adopting an empirical research strategy focusing on developing countries that are not in an advanced state of e‐government development...