COBRA framework to evaluate e-government services: A citizen-centric perspective

E-government services involve many stakeholders who have different objectives that can have an impact on success. Among these stakeholders, citizens are the primary stakeholders of government activities. Accordingly, their satisfaction plays an important role in e-government success. Although several models have been proposed to assess the success of e-government services through measuring users' satisfaction levels, they fail to provide a comprehensive evaluation model. This study provides an insight and critical analysis of the extant literature to identify the most critical factors and their manifested variables for user satisfaction in the provision of e-government services. The various manifested variables are then grouped into a new quantitative analysis framework consisting of four main constructs: cost; benefit; risk and opportunity (COBRA) by analogy to the well-known SWOT qualitative analysis framework. The COBRA measurement scale is developed, tested, refined and validated on a sample group of e-government service users in Turkey. A structured equation model is used to establish relationships among the identified constructs, associated variables and users' satisfaction. The results confirm that COBRA framework is a useful approach for evaluating the success of e-government services from citizens' perspective and it can be generalised to other perspectives and measurement contexts. Crown Copyright © 2014.PIAP-GA-2008-230658) from the European Union Framework Program and another grant (NPRP 09-1023-5-158) from the Qatar National Research Fund (amember of Qatar Foundation

Critical review of the e-loyalty literature: a purchase-centred framework

Over the last few years, the concept of online loyalty has been examined extensively in the literature, and it remains a topic of constant inquiry for both academics and marketing managers. The tremendous development of the Internet for both marketing and e-commerce settings, in conjunction with the growing desire of consumers to purchase online, has promoted two main outcomes: (a) increasing numbers of Business-to-Customer companies running businesses online and (b) the development of a variety of different e-loyalty research models. However, current research lacks a systematic review of the literature that provides a general conceptual framework on e-loyalty, which would help managers to understand their customers better, to take advantage of industry-related factors, and to improve their service quality. The present study is an attempt to critically synthesize results from multiple empirical studies on e-loyalty. Our findings illustrate that 62 instruments for measuring e-loyalty are currently in use, influenced predominantly by Zeithaml et al. (J Marketing. 1996;60(2):31-46) and Oliver (1997; Satisfaction: a behavioral perspective on the consumer. New York: McGraw Hill). Additionally, we propose a new general conceptual framework, which leads to antecedents dividing e-loyalty on the basis of the action of purchase into pre-purchase, during-purchase and after-purchase factors. To conclude, a number of managerial implementations are suggested in order to help marketing managers increase their customers’ e-loyalty by making crucial changes in each purchase stage

Issues and challenges: cloud computing e-Government in developing countries

Cloud computing has become essential for IT resources that can be delivered as a service over the Internet. Many e-government services that are used worldwide provide communities with relatively complex applications and services. Governments are still facing many challenges in their implementation of e-government services in general, including Saudi Arabia, such as poor IT infrastructure, lack of finance, and insufficient data security. This research paper investigates the challenges of e-government cloud service models in developing countries. This paper finds that governments in developing countries are influenced by how the top management deals with the attention to the adoption of cloud computing. Further, organisational readiness levels of technologies, such as IT infrastructure, internet availability and social trust of the adoption of new technology as cloud computing, still present limitations for e-government cloud services adoption. Based on the findings of the critical review, this paper identifies the issues and challenges affecting the adoption of cloud computing in e- government such as IT infrastructure, internet availability, and trust adopted new technologies thereby highlighting benefits of cloud computing-based e-government services. Furthermore, we propose recommendations for developing IT systems focused on trust when adopting cloud computing in e-government services (CCEGov)

Evaluating e-Government services from a citizens' prespective: A reference process model

Evaluating and optimizing e-government services is imperative for governments especially due to the capacity of e-services to transform public administrations and assist the interactions of governments with citizens, businesses and other government agencies. Existing widely applied evaluation approaches neglect to incorporate citizens’ satisfaction measures. Several citizen satisfaction models and indicators have been suggested in academia; however a reference process model that can assist practitioners to apply these performance measures is missing. In this paper we draw upon the evaluation approach proposed by the EU funded project CEES and propose a reference process model that captures re-usable practices for e-government evaluation from a citizens’ perspective. The novelty of the proposed approach is that using DEA for evaluating the e-services the assessment results in suggestions for strategic improvement of the e-services.EU FP7 Marie Curie People Project “CEES - Citizen oriented Evaluation of E-Government Systems” (reference IAPP-2008-230658

Factors affecting e-government adoption in the state of Qatar

Electronic government (e-government) initiatives are in their early stages in many developing countries and faced with various issues pertaining to their implementation, adoption and diffusion. Although e-government has increased transparency and improved communication and access to information for citizens, digital diffusion of information is often achieved at high cost to government agencies. Conversely, citizens’ adoption of e-government services has been less than satisfactory in most countries. While studies by researchers continue to outline the most salient adoption constructs, as well as various frameworks and models for understanding adoption, research by independent consultancy/research organisations has produced a host of statistics and league tables of good and bad practices of service delivery. Like many other developing countries, the e-government initiative in the state of Qatar has faced a number of challenges since its inception in 2000. This study utilises the Unified Theory of Acceptance and Use of Technology (UTAUT) to explore the adoption of e-government services in the state of Qatar. 1179 citizens were surveyed to collect primary data. A regression analysis was conducted to examine the influence of the factors adapted from the UTAUT on e-government adoption. Reliability test reported values of the various constructs vary between (0.74) and (0.91). The findings reveal that effort expectancy and social influences determine citizens’ behavioural intention towards e-government. Additionally, facilitating conditions and behavioural intention were found to determine citizens’ use of e-government services in Qatar. Implications for practice and research are discussed

A framework for the successful implementation of food traceability systems in China

Implementation of food traceability systems in China faces many challenges due to the scale, diversity and complexity of China’s food supply chains. This study aims to identify critical success factors specific to the implementation of traceability systems in China. Twenty-seven critical success factors were identified in the literature. Interviews with managers at four food enterprises in a pre-study helped identify success criteria and five additional critical success factors. These critical success factors were tested through a survey of managers in eighty-three food companies. This study identifies six dimensions for critical success factors: laws, regulations and standards; government support; consumer knowledge and support; effective management and communication; top management and vendor support; and information and system quality

E-Government evaluation factors: Citizen’s perspective

The e-government field is growing to a considerable size, both in its contents and position with respect to other research fields. The government to citizen segment of egovernment is taking the lead in terms of its importance and size. Like the evaluation of all other information systems initiatives, the evaluation of egovernments in both theory and practice has proved to be important but complex. The complexity of evaluation is mostly due to the multiple perspectives involved, the difficulties of quantifying benefits, and the social and technical context of use. The importance of e-government evaluation is due to the enormous investment of governments on delivering e-government services, and to the considerable pace of growing in the e-government field. However, despite the importance of the evaluation of e-government services, literature shows that e-government evaluation is still an immature area in terms of development and management. This work is part of a research effort that aims to develop a holistic evaluation framework for e-government systems. The main aim of this paper is to investigate the citizen’ perspective in evaluating e-government services, and present a set of evaluating factors that influence citizens’ utilization of e-government services. These evaluation factors can serve as part of an e-government evaluation framework. Moreover, the evaluation factors can also be used as means of providing valuable feedback for the planning of future egovernment initiatives

Acceptance model of electronic medical record

This paper discusses acceptance issues of Electronic Medical Record System (EMR), particularly in Malaysia. A detailed overview of EMR and its benefits are firstly discussed. A number of acceptance models are scrutinized. Then factors affecting EMR acceptance are put forward. Finally, before proposing an EMR acceptance model, an instrument formed by adapting and then finding its factors loading is presented