African E-Government Research Landscape

Over the past decade, African governments have followed the worldwide trends towards establishing e-government with the aim of improving public service delivery to citizens through the use of Information and Communication Technology (ICT). As a consequence, authors from academia, government departments and agencies, civil society, industry, non-governmental and international organizations have embarked into e-government research focusing on Africa. However, the state of the art of e-government research in Africa is poorly documented. This study analyzes the status of e-government research in Africa. A qualitative technique based on online searches and literature reviews is used to collect data that have addressed any aspect of e-government development in Africa. Thereafter, the content analysis of the reviewed literature is performed. The results of the study show: (1) the growth pattern of Africa e-government research within a period of 10 years from 2002 to 2012, (2) the issues addressed by the researchers on e-government development in Africa, (3) the African countries and regional participation in e-government research in Africa, and (4) the affiliation and expertise of authors undertaking research on e-government in Africa. These results provide useful insights that might be of interest to African governments, industry and academia for the future development of e-government on the continent. Also included in the paper is an annotated bibliography of e-government research

Use of social media by governments to enhance online civic engagement: The case of Egypt

This research examines the extent to which the use of social media by the Egyptian government in its communication with the public enhances online civic engagement. Its importance lies in the fact that several studies highlighted the benefits of the utilization of social media by governments in engaging with the public. This thesis defines civic engagement as the involvement of citizens in online activities that seek to address public issues through the social media platforms of the Egyptian government. It focuses on the five types of online civic engagement behavior as described by Denning (2001), i.e. collection of information, publication of information, dialogue, coordination of action, and lobbying decision makers. This study employs content analysis. Over a period of 15 months, a probability, simple random sample of 491 posts by three Facebook pages of Egyptian ministries and 2287 comments by the public on these Pages was analyzed. It reached four main conclusions. First, the Egyptian ministries use of social media contributes poorly to the strengthening of online civic engagement. Second, a linear, one-way model characterizes the type of communication conducted by the Egyptian ministries. Third, the content of the interaction of the public with the government provides evidence that citizens are active in exploiting the ministries’ social media to voice their opinions, lobby decision makers, and raise questions. Finally, though there is marginal interaction between the ministries and the public, citizens are more engaged into dialogue amongst themselves. Thus, this research concludes that social media is an untapped communication resource in the context of its utilization by the Egyptian government. Consequently, this study fills a gap in the literature and could encourage other researchers to tackle that topic from its different aspects

A structural model of information system quality: an empirical research

Assessing the quality of a delivered system has been one of the major challenges for researchers as well as for the practitioners (organizations). There is the need of a multidimensional instrument capable of measuring the quality of an information system, that instrument would provide valid information that helps an organization to take decisions in order to improve and assure the quality of its information systems. On the other hand, the majority of IS researchers are still not sufficient validating their instruments and there is the need of empirical findings. This research-in-progress paper proposes a model to measure the quality of an information system and uses the statistical approach Partial Least Squares (PLS) for its validation

Análisis de variables e indicadores para medir el e-gobierno publicados en la literatura científica

El desarrollo del e-gobierno ha sido promovido como estrategia para mejorar la eficiencia y eficacia de la gestión pública, facilitar la realización de trámites ante las entidades del Estado, ahorrar tiempo y dinero, aumentar la transparencia, acercar al Gobierno a los diferentes actores, así como buscar una mayor participación en la toma de las decisiones. Dada la importancia que el e-gobierno tiene para varios países, incluida Colombia, es importante analizar qué aspectos son considerados, por la comunidad académica y científica, para su medición y seguimiento. En ese sentido, el propósito de este artículo es presentar el resultado del análisis de variables e indicadores propuestos en la literatura científica en el periodo de 2004 a 2014 para medir el gobierno electrónico. Además, se realizó un análisis cien-tométrico para la literatura publicada en 2015 y 2016. Para identificar los documentos por analizar se realizó una revisión sistemática de literatura. Posteriormente, las variables y los indicadores fueron clasificados y analizados. Los resultados obtenidos evidencian el interés en medir aspectos relacionados con los servicios ofertados en el e-gobierno y el uso de estándares para el desarrollo de los portales, así como en medir aspectos relacionados con la caracterización de usuarios. Los resultados obtenidos pueden constituirse en un punto de partida para la construcción de sistemas de medición del e-gobierno

Citizen Diversity in e-Government Research: Moving the Field Forward

Whereas broad launch of public e-services ensures equal and homogenous treatment of citizens, citizen diversity is often set aside. By means of a literature study we describe how research has addressed diversity in the field of eGovernment. we analyzed the papers according to the following codes: group; application domain; unit of analysis; and technology in use or design. Results showed that the most common application domain was e-services with access and use as the most common units of analysis. The most frequently researched groups are based on classical socio-demographic variables such as economy, education and age. Also, the majority of papers discussed services in use. We conclude by suggesting that future research focuses underrepresented user groups; adds further granularity to the classical sociodemographic variables; identifies groups within groups; targets policies and policy implementation; and changes focus from use to development. We also call for conceptual clarity of the concept ‘diversity’

The mediating effect of good governance on the relationship between e-government and public trust in Lebanon

The main objective of this research is to study the mediating effect of good governance on the relationship between e-government and public trust in Lebanon. As an effective tool for economic reform, there is a need to adopt e-government practices to enhance the public trust towards the government. Based on extensive literature review and conceptual background including the theories of institutional-based trust and the diffusion of innovation, the theoretical research framework was developed. Primary data was collected using survey involving 400 Lebanese employees in Beirut. The data have been analyzed using Structural Equation Modeling (SEM). The research findings revealed that eight hypotheses were accepted while five hypothesis were rejected indicating that e-government practices including e-services have a significant and positive effect on both good governance and public trust in Lebanon. However, e-administration has a positive effect on good governance but not on public trust. E-procurement has insignificant effect on both good governance and public trust. Good governance has a positive and significant effect on public trust, but it has no mediating effect on the relationship between e-government including e-administration and public trust. The findings also show that good governance mediates the effect of both e-service and e-procurement on public trust. This research contributes practically by offering practitioners and policy makers in governments the guidelines on how they can empower and build citizens‟ trust by providing efficient, transparent and accountable government services. Future studies are suggested to extend the research empirically in terms of respondents, geographical location and methodology of analysi

Whole of government critical success factors towards integrated E-government services: a preliminary review

Electronic Government (E-government) becomes one of the key elements for sustainable development of the country. Previous studies on E-government indicate that most governments are performing well in E-government implementation. However, the issues of process duplication and bureaucracy in services should be addressed to build trust and increase citizens’ satisfaction. Currently, there is a necessity to focus on the development of integrated and tailored-made services that suit with citizens’ needs. This initiative entails high commitment and collaboration from agencies, which can be achieved through the whole of government (WoG) approach. This study aims to identify the critical success factors of WoG towards the development of integrated E-government services. A preliminary review was conducted on previous studies and reports to get some insights of the subject being studied. The identified data were coded and analysed using content analysis method. The findings demonstrate that there are a number of critical success factors for WoG, which consist of technical and non-technical aspects. The findings act as a theoretical framework for better understanding about WoG approach for integrated E-government services

Towards Synthetic and Balanced Digital Government Benchmarking

Reliable benchmarking is essential for effective management of the government digitalization efforts. Existing benchmarking instruments generally fail to support this target. One problem is the diversity of instruments, resulting in a split image of digital progress and adding ambiguity to policy decisions. Another problem is disconnect in assessing progress between digital and traditional “analog” governance, lending support to a dangerous idea that countries can compensate for lack of progress in their governance systems by simply digitalizing them. This paper provides a path to addressing both problems by: aggregating relevant indicators of the World Economic Forum’s Network Readiness Index (NRI) to obtain a single synthetic measure of digital government, balancing this measure with progress in analog governance using World Bank’s Worldwide Governance Indicators (WGI), calculating new measures for the latest editions of NRI and WGI, and discussing results. Technically, the paper applies multidimensional linear ordering and factor analysis

Electronic Government Adoption Model Among Business Organizations in Jordan

E-government adoption involves a significant change in the way government administrative operations with its stakeholders are being conducted. Past studies have tended to view e-government adoption in terms of a dichotomous outcome; either e-government is adopted, or it is not. Such studies give little indication of the diffusion of e-government applications. The aim of this study is to address this gap in existing research by investigating both the level and extent of usage of e-government applications. In so doing, the study draws on research in the area of innovation diffusion theories. The population of this study consisted of firms listed in Amman Stock Exchange (ASE) that have adopted B2G (business-to-government) e-government. The main objective of this study is to characterize B2G e-government adoption among businesses listed in ASE. It also aims to identify factors associated with the adoption of B2G e-government and to determine the impacts of its adoption on these businesses. A total of 113 usable responses were generated for further analysis. Based on two parts, the level of e-government adoption and the extent of usage for each application, two groups of adopters were identified and labeled as basic-adopters and advanced-adopters. Technological, organizational and external factors were found to have influenced e-government adoption among businesses in ASE. It was also found that advanced-adopters had gained more significant benefits from e-government adoption than basic-adopters. In particular, advanced-adopters achieved time saving, lower cost and efficiency as well as gaining strategic benefits such as better work efficiency, lower operational cost, and reduced work-process time

Chain Action - How Do Countries Add Value Through Digital Government?

This study examines how countries develop and benefit from Digital Government (DG). The literature proposes various conceptualizations of the value-adding logic of DG, but the benchmarking practice is not responding to such proposals. For instance, the United Nations’ E-Government Survey combines the readiness and uptake indicators and fails to cover any impact indicators; thus, its diagnostic value is limited. To overcome this limitation, we introduce a new assessment scheme based on the DG value chain concept and pursue the question: how do the world countries add value in this chain? Reassembling the UN’s e-Government Survey indicators and the World Bank’s Worldwide Governance Indicators, we examine how the 191 UN Member States converted their readiness into uptake and uptake into impact over the 2014-2018 period. The results rank the countries concerning their performance along the DG value chain, identify hotspots, and calculate the valu