Essays on electronic government in developing countries

Abstract

E-government (EG) is defined as the practice of employing communication technologies such as the internet, mobile, fax, mail, and telephone to provide public service to citizens, businesses, and other government agencies. Developing countries (DCs), utilizing the late comer advantage, are mimicking paperless government with the expectation of reaping the same benefits enjoyed by developed countries. The move towards a paperless government can be justified by the numerous benefits associated with it; these include increased quality and efficiency of government services and operations. However, EG initiatives have not always been successful in DCs, mostly due to certain unique social, economic, technological, and environmental challenges associated with it. Therefore, the aim of this dissertation is to identify and to empirically investigate problems faced by EG in DCs which have been widely undermined and ignored in previous studies. The dissertation is composed of three essays. The goal of first essay, utilizing a scientometrics approach (science of analyzing science), is to analyze and synthesize EG literature that deals with the issues/topics related to DCs from the lens of socio-technical theory (STT). 145 articles from 7 core EG journals, published during the last decade, were selected and reviewed for analyzing EG literature related to DCs; the articles reviewed for this study address strengths, limitations, and future directions for EG researchers in DCs. We found that EG literature related to DCs has somewhat adopted a balanced approach and is moving away from a merely theoretical or conceptual bases toward an empirical foundation; however, the literature lacked depth and balance in terms of issues/topics discussed and methodologies applied. Furthermore, one of the prominent challenges of e-government in developing countries identified (in first essay) is low level of ICT literacy and skills of EG users. Therefore, the purpose of the second essay, utiliz...