Mapping eParticipation Research: Four Central Challenges

The emerging research area of eParticipation can be characterized as the study of technology-facilitated citizen participation in (democratic) deliberation and decision-making. Using conventional literature study techniques, we identify 105 articles that are considered to be highly relevant to eParticipation. We develop a definitional schema that suggests different ways of understanding an emerging socio-technical research area and use this schema to map the research contributions identified. This allows us make an initial sketch of the scientific character of the area and its central concerns, theories, and methods. We extend the analysis to define four central research challenges for the field: understanding technology and participation; the strategic challenge; the design challenge; and the evaluation challenge. This article thus contributes to a developing account of eParticipation, which will help future researchers both to navigate the research area and to focus their research agendas

An Artifact Switching Model for User Acceptance of eBooks

This study theorizes and validates a model of user switching from non-IT artifacts to IT artifacts by integrating and extending prior findings from IT acceptance and adoption streams of research and using migration theory as the theoretical bridge. The proposed model examines different types of switching predictors such as push and pull factors, intervening obstacles, and individual differences, as well as interdependencies between these factors as moderating effects. Empirical data from a longitudinal field survey of users' switching from traditional hard copy books to eBooks validates most of the hypothesized associations. This study alerts publishers, academics, and educational institutions to the challenges and opportunities of artifact switching in general and suggests strategies that can help these stakeholders enable artifact switching within their target populations.This work was supported by the research fund of Hanyang University (HY-2008-N) and the National Research Foundation of Korea Grant NRF-2010-332-B00075

Influence Processes for Information Technology Acceptance: An Elaboration Likelihood Model

This study examines how processes of external influence shape information technology (IT) acceptance among potential users, how such influence effects vary across a user population, and the persistence of these effects over time. Drawing on the elaboration-likelihood model (ELM), we compared two alternative influence processes, the central and peripheral routes, in motivating IT acceptance. These processes were respectively operationalized using the argument quality and source credibility constructs, and linked to perceived usefulness and attitude, the core perceptual drivers of IT acceptance. We further examined how these influence processes were moderated by users’ IT expertise and perceived job relevance and the temporal stability of the influence effects. Nine hypotheses thus developed were empirically validated using a field survey of document management system acceptance at an eastern European governmental agency. This study contributes to the IT acceptance literature by introducing ELM as a referent theory for acceptance research, by elaborating alternative modes of influence, and by specifying factors moderating their effects. For practitioners, this study introduced influence processes as policy tools that managers can employ to motivate IT acceptance within their organizations, benchmarked alternative influence strategies, and demonstrated the need for customizing influence strategies to the specific needs of a user population

IT Implementation in a Developing Country Municipality: A Sociocognitive Analysis

This article presents an interpretive analysis of the key problems and challenges to technology implementation in developing countries, based on a three-year case analysis of an IT project in a city government in Ukraine. We employ the concept of technological frames of reference as an analytical tool for articulating the group-level structures related to the implementation context from the perspectives of key stakeholders and examine the degree of conflict between these frames using a Fishbone diagram. We report that conflict between technological frames held by key stakeholders in large-scale system implementation projects often create an unexpected, dysfunctional, and politically charged implementation environment, ultimately leading to project failures, even if the project enjoys a high level of financial and management support. This, in turn, creates unique challenges for technology implementation projects in developing countries that are often overlooked in the traditional academic and practitioner literatures based on experiences from developed countries

IT Implementation in a Developing Country Municipality: A Sociocognitive Analysis

This article presents an interpretive analysis of the key problems and challenges to technology implementation in developing countries, based on a three-year case analysis of an IT project in a city government in Ukraine. We employ the concept of technological frames of reference as an analytical tool for articulating the group-level structures related to the implementation context from the perspectives of key stakeholders and examine the degree of conflict between these frames using a Fishbone diagram. We report that conflict between technological frames held by key stakeholders in large-scale system implementation projects often create an unexpected, dysfunctional, and politically charged implementation environment, ultimately leading to project failures, even if the project enjoys a high level of financial and management support. This, in turn, creates unique challenges for technology implementation projects in developing countries that are often overlooked in the traditional academic and practitioner literatures based on experiences from developed countries

IT Implementation in a Developing Country Municipality: A Sociocognitive Analysis

This article presents an interpretive analysis of the key problems and challenges to technology implementation in developing countries, based on a three-year case analysis of an IT project in a city government in Ukraine. We employ the concept of technological frames of reference as an analytical tool for articulating the group-level structures related to the implementation context from the perspectives of key stakeholders and examine the degree of conflict between these frames using a Fishbone diagram. We report that conflict between technological frames held by key stakeholders in large-scale system implementation projects often create an unexpected, dysfunctional, and politically charged implementation environment, ultimately leading to project failures, even if the project enjoys a high level of financial and management support. This, in turn, creates unique challenges for technology implementation projects in developing countries that are often overlooked in the traditional academic and practitioner literatures based on experiences from developed countries