426,629 research outputs found

    Attitudinal and behavioural determinants influencing decision makers when adopting integration technologies in local government

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    Over the last few years, the advent of innovative or revolutionary integration technologies has influenced pivotal decisions within top management to strategically transform Local Government Authorities (LGAs). These technologies may represent a huge cost for adopting LGAs, but may also offer the chance to achieve competitive advantage through superior service delivery. With the emergence of electronic Government (e- Government), LGAs are turning to integration technologies to fully automate and e-enable their business processes and integrate their IT infrastructures. While prior research on the adoption of integration technologies in the private and public domain has considered several determinants (e.g. benefits, barriers, costs), little attention has been given to investigate the attitudinal and behavioural determinants influencing top management’s decision making process for the adoption of integration technologies in LGAs. Notwithstanding, the implications of this research have yet to be assessed, leaving scope for timeliness and novel research. Therefore, it is of high importance to investigate this area within LGAs and contribute to the area of strategic decision making by examining attitudinal and behavioural determinants of top management in relation to integration technologies adoption

    Economic integration and the optimal corporate tax structure with heterogeneous firms

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    We study the optimal combination of corporate tax rate and tax base in a model of a small open economy with heterogeneous firms. We show that it is optimal for the small country's government to eÂźectively subsidize capital inputs by granting a tax allowance in excess of the true costs of capital. Economic integration reduces the optimal capital subsidy and drives low-productivity firms from the small country's home market, replacing them with high-productivity exporters from abroad. This endogenous policy response creates a selection effect that increases the average productivity of home firms when trade barriers fall, in addition to the well-known direct effects

    Comparing online with offline citizen engagement for climate change: findings from Austria, Germany and Spain

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    The aim of this paper is to study the expectations of environmental senior managers, as experts in this field, about the effect of e-participation in the fight against climate change. Their experiences in, and the fulfillment of their expectations about, citizen participation in local government environmental programs have been analyzed through different questionnaires in order to answer the following research questions. What effects can be expected from citizen participation in environmental programs? What conditions are necessary for, and what barriers are there to, successful participation processes? Is e-participation more effective than traditional citizen participation? The results confirm that e-participation is only an enabler of citizen engagement in participation processes, but it does not overcome all the barriers to these processes. The success of citizen participation cannot be guaranteed merely by introducing ICTs. The integration of e-participation with traditional offline tools for citizen participation is needed

    Development of an Inclusive Participatory Democracy System

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    Barriers such as unequal access, lack of digital skill, low income and disability constitute limiting factors for technology-mediated citizens and government interaction in developing countries. It is against this backdrop that this work explores the integration of Voice, Web and SMS technologies, in Nigeria’s democratic process. The proposed system takes advantage of the ubiquitous nature of mobile devices to explore the plausibility of increasing the level of citizens’ participation in democratic practices, particularly, those in rural areas with no Internet access and the physically challenged electorates. The server module for the e-democracy system was developed in PHP. Ozeki SMS server and Voxeo Voice server were used for SMS transaction code and VoiceXML code respectively. The prototype e-democracy system shows that developing nations can take advantage of their present level of technological development to give voice to the voiceless and improve their democratic system

    Managing records in a digital environment : the relationship to ICT/ e-government and freedom of information strategy development; an international situation analysis

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    This in-depth analysis highlights (by category) significant record keeping tools, techniques, and information sources developed around the world to jump start digital records initiatives and avoid developing tools and techniques that are already available. This report covers general characteristics of freedom of information (FOI), e-Government and ICT strategy development, as well as barriers to the successful integration of electronic records management in each area. It identifies strategies to overcome these barriers based on detailed examination of the components of the records management infrastructure

    (Re)theorising European Integration under Globalisation:A Political Economy Approach

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    In the last two decades, the European Union has become wider and deeper. In addition, the number of regional integration arrangements has increased dramatically since early 1990s. Against these developments, the focus of regional and European integration studies has shifted away from the motives for and drivers of the integration process towards policy analysis or the comparative politics or regional blocs. This article attempts to bring the regional integration theory back in by proposing a political economy model that explains the dynamics of European integration, the reasons as to why governments agree to delegate authority to regional (EU) institutions, and the relationship between globalisation and integration

    Variation in the Use of Subregional Integration Courts between Business and Human Rights Actors: The Case of the East African Court of Justice

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    Residential energy visualization has increased in popularity during the past years, due to both legislation and an increased focus on the environmental impact of buildings. Meanwhile, the European energy efficiency directive has raised a debate on legislation on individual metering and charging (IMC), in which many negative voices among property owners and developers are being raised. The controversies bring interesting aspects to the analysis of energy visualization and its prerequisite IMC. This thesis will analyze the possibilities and barriers to implement residential energy visualization in new buildings in Stockholm, and the focus will be on local developers' perspective. The purpose of the thesis is to establish Stockholm developers' willingness to pay (WTP) for an IMC and energy visualization solution. The thesis defines perceived utility as the driving force for WTP, and accordingly the developer WTP is analyzed by evaluation of the developers' perceived utility of different technical aspects of an energy visualization solution. The solution has been modularized into three modules; IMC of hot water, IMC of heating and residential visualization. The hypothesis is that utility of the solution modules is perceived differently depending on developer ownership and developer business model; if the developer builds for property management or to sell. The empirical data has been collected through twelve in-depth interviews with developers in Stockholm. The developers were of different size, ownership and with different business models. When looking at the developers from an overall perspective, the analysis shows that there is some willingness to pay for IMC of hot water but none for IMC of heating. It can also be seen that residential visualization is something that the developers have some interest in although the overall WTP is considered low. Although environmental and fairness aspects are often mentioned by the developers in the context of IMC and energy visualization, operational and financial utility seem to be more influential in driving willingness to pay and as these utilities are not perceived, the overall WTP is low or non-existent for IMC and energy visualization. The hypothesis that developers would perceive utility differently depending on ownership or business model, if they build for property management of for sales, could not be proven. There are possibly tendencies for such differences but in this study such patterns were not clear enough to state the hypothesis as true. Additional to the WTP and developer groups, insights and takeaways are presented. The insights and takeaways are based on opportunities and risks that developers perceive with IMC and visualization, as well as requirements they have on the systems
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