Academic literature on the topic 'E-Gov adoption'

Resumo O presente trabalho teve como objetivo analisar a influência da confiança e da confiabilidade na intenção de adoção e uso de serviços eletrônicos do governo (e-gov). Para isso, foi proposto um modelo estrutural, considerando o relacionamento dos constructos Capacidade, Benevolência, Integridade, Experiência, Risco Percebido, Confiança no Governo e Disposição para Confiar. O modelo foi testado por meio de modelagem de equações estruturais (mínimos quadrados parciais). A coleta de dados ocorreu por intermédio de questionário na internet composto por 36 itens com escalas do tipo Likert de 11 pontos para os constructos presentes no modelo. Depois da primeira rodada de análise, foi proposto um modelo alternativo com melhor ajuste. Neste, observou-se que: 1) Capacidade, Benevolência e Integridade juntos influenciam positivamente a Confiança no Governo; 2) Confiança no Governo e Confiança na Internet influenciam positivamente a Confiança no e-gov; 3) Confiança no e-gov influencia negativamente o Risco Percebido e positivamente a Intenção de Uso de e-gov; e 5) Risco Percebido influencia negativamente a Intenção de Uso de e-gov. Considerando os resultados da pesquisa, conforme as agências governamentais aumentam os gastos para implementar e manter iniciativas de e-gov, é imprescindível que também reconheçam e tratem de questões associadas à confiança.

Advancements of information and communication technologies (ICT) have made it possible for governments to shift a vast majority of their services online, creating what is known as electronic government (e-gov). Many researchers have been studying the factors influencing users' behavioural intentions to use such services. This study methodically examines and visualizes the various relationships between variables and their overall performance by reviewing the findings of 51 publications in the context of the Arab gulf countries (known as GCC countries). The study provides a holistic diagrammatic representation of the synthesized models depicting the various types and directions of relationships between variables, followed by a weight analysis of the frequently used relationships in order to determine their overall cumulative performance. The outcomes of this review contribute to theory and practice by identifying e-gov adoption research patterns and gaps and by providing recommendations to policymakers and officials involved in developing and implementing e-gov systems.

In this paper, the authors propose and discuss a conceptual model for examining factors affecting e-government adoption in Jordan. This study evaluates existing empirical studies that examine e-government adoption in developing and under-developed countries. These studies were based on pre-existing theoretical models for explaining and guiding their research frameworks. An in-depth analysis of such models revealed that the technology acceptance model (TAM), the diffusion of innovation (DOI) theory, the theory of planned behaviour (TPB), and the unified theory of acceptance and use of technology (UTAUT) were among some of the most frequently used. As the UTAUT is a unified model based on the mapping of eight models, it was deemed appropriate to use the UTAUT as a guiding model for this research. A comprehensive analysis of all studies and constructs revealed that some external factors were also important for explaining e-gov adoption in developing countries. Hence, such external factors also considered relevant were integrated with UTAUT constructs as examining factors affecting e-gov adoption in Jordan. The theoretical and logical arguments and prior empirical validation of the constructs and their relationships allowed for the justification of the proposed integrated model and formulation of the associated hypotheses.

Abstract This study analyzed the influence of trust and trustworthiness on the intention to adopt and use e-government services. A structural model was proposed, considering the relationship among Ability, Benevolence, Integrity, Perceived Risk, Trust of the Government, Trust of the Internet and Disposition to Trust. The model was tested through structural equation modeling (partial least square method). An online questionnaire was applied, including 36 items for all the constructs presented in the model, and measured with 11-point Likert scales. After the first round of analysis, an alternative model was proposed with a better fit. Results indicated that: 1) Ability, Benevolence, and Integrity, together, positively influence Trust of the Government; 2) Trust of the Government and Trust of the Internet positively influence Trust in e-Government; 3) Trust in e-Government negatively influences Perceived Risk and positively influences Intention to Use and; 5) Perceived Risk negatively influences Intention to Use. Considering the results of this research, as government agencies increase their expenditure to implement and maintain e-gov initiatives, they must recognize and deal with trust-related issues.

Taking a number or waiting in line is a thing of the past in public services, thanks to the proliferation of secure websites and mobile apps. More people throughout the globe are benefiting from e-government services, which have made their lives easier. People's willingness to use e-government services depends heavily on their level of awareness & trust in the system. In order to have a better understanding of the factors affecting trust in e-government services, empirical study is required. When it comes to e-government, Nellore residents have a lot of trust and this article’s studies show that trust affects their desire to utilize e-government services. In order to acquire information on several trust-related aspects, such as trust in government & technology, information quality & promises of privacy & security, we employed 150 questionnaires in total. Additionally, the TAM model’s two dimensions (“perceived usefulness and perceived ease-of-use”) are used to predict the likelihood of using e-government utility. According to the study’s findings, all of the factors included in the analysis were significant predictors of whether or not respondents intended to utilize e-government services. Despite this, confidence in e-government was predicted by all the hypothesized factors, except for privacy and security guarantee.

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to identify and model adoption criteria of citizens for electronic-government (eGov) service at the transaction maturity stage. Design/methodology/approach – The empirical study was conducted among the citizens of Ontario, Canada who have experience of using Canadian e-Gov system. Findings – From statistical analysis through LISREL, this study revealed that ability to use and assurance to use are the critical factors for adoption of eGov at the transaction phase (GAM-T). Originality/value – The findings of this research can be considered as original as this paper concludes that eGov functional characteristics are not only different at different levels of service maturity, but adoption factors at different levels of service maturity are also potentially different. From static to interaction to transaction, citizens perceive different factors to be important for creating the behavioral attitude and intention to accept the eGov system and to use it.

Prior research has established the existence of a differential between industrialized and other countries for e-Government diffusion. It attempts to explain this divide by identifying economic and technical variables. At the same time, the role of national governance institutions in e-Government diffusion has been relatively under-theorized and under-studied. The authors posit that, the existing national governance institutions shape the diffusion and assimilation of e-Government in any country via associated institutions in three key sectors: government, private sector and non-governmental organizations. This paper develops and tests a preliminary model of e-Government diffusion using the governance institutional climate as represented via democratic practices, transparency of private sector corporate governance, corruption perception, and the free press. The results indicate that the level of development of national governance institutions can explain the level of e-Government diffusion over and above economic and technical variables. The authors’ research contributes to the literature by providing initial evidence that the existing national governance institutions influence and shape e-Gov diffusion and assimilation beyond the adoption stage.

Purpose This paper aims to systematize the contextual factors that influence the intention to use citizens and governments-initiated platforms, presenting them as non-functional requirements (NFRs), to facilitate their understanding to implementers. Design/methodology/approach A systematic mapping of the literature was done to identify the contextual factors from citizens and governments (C2G) adoption, followed by a survey applied to 938 potential users of this type of technology. The results were analyzed through logistic regression to understand the impact of the contextual factors on the intention to use C2G platforms and then those contextual factors were formalized as NFRs represented by a Softgoal Interdependence Graph. Findings Among the results, the most prominent factors were the influence of the “users perceived contribution” and the “citizens concern about the city conditions”. Finally, some strategies are suggested to help public managers and developers to optimize the factors that have shown to be significant. Practical implications This study can support e-gov policies in the implementation of C2G platforms because several municipalities need assistance in taking actions to foster greater citizens’ engagement. An example of this type of contribution is the indication of the factors of greatest impact in the adoption of use and the indication of paths to be followed if the manager and developers decide to focus on each of them. Originality/value The identification of several contextual factors which influence C2G platforms adoption and their systematization with the purpose of jointly visualizing and evaluating them.

The article presents the results of the analysis of the implementation of E-Governance and E-Democracy tools in the field of preventing political corruption in public authorities. The effective practice of Finland in using and implementing e-democracy tools is considered, as evidenced by the «Corruption Perceptions Index» rating, which is concluded annually by the international organization Transparency International on the basis of a survey of experts and business conducted by a number of international organizations. The results describe the level of e-government development in Scandinavia, and outline the prospects for developing and implementing their experience for Ukraine. The author analyzes the importance of maximum openness and accountability in the activities of public authorities and their officials, transparency and clarity of procedures for the development and adoption of administrative decisions; obligatory training of public servants for E-GOV tools was determined for the successful implementation of anti-corruption measures provided by legislation and government documents and ensuring public relations. An important aspect is the need for continuous improvement of the current legal and regulatory framework in the field of anti-corruption policy and its adaptation to the dynamic development of information and communication technologies. This approach encourages the introduction and use of new technological tools aimed at preventing corruption and political corruption in public authorities at all levels of public administration. The reform of public procurement, the introduction of the ProZorro procurement system, the automation of public services in the centers for the provision of administrative services (CPAS), electronic declarations and the receipt of services in electronic form has become an important step in the path of changes in the field of e-democracy that took place in Ukraine after the Revolution of Dignity.

To cope with the COVID-19 pandemic, contact tracing applications have been proposed to limit positive cases and reinforce other measures, especially before the appearance of vaccines. A high rate of adoption by citizens is required. This study investigates the impact of trust on the adoption of tracking applications. A survey was administered in Morocco, where the authorities proposed the «Wiqaytna» application. Structural Equation Modeling was used to test the hypotheses of the proposed model. The model explains 53% of the variance of the “intention to use” and 40.8% of the “actual use” of the application. The model was based on the UTAUT technology acceptance model and the GAM model of e-gov service acceptance. Our main objective was to study the impact of trust in the decision of Moroccans to use this type of application. Technology trust, government trust and social influence were important determinants of intention to use. The proposed model also shows that perceived awareness is an important antecedent of trust constructs. The impact of «perceived awareness» on the trust constructs (technology and government) is stronger than the social influence on the latter. Moreover, our model shows that «Perceived Awareness» has a more significant impact on «technology trust» than on «government trust». Due to their lack of interest (in seeking information) and attention (communications on the application), citizens lack information about the application's usefulness and the security of users' data. Even those who have had contact with the information they are looking for cannot often verify its credibility (e.g. the source code of the «Wiqaytna» application was available on Github). Therefore, cognitive and individual factors give way to social influence, and the intention to use becomes dependent on the norms and suggestions of influential people in the individual's environment. The latter construct is complex and has multiple determinants. Several factors act on the construction of trust in the authorities' quality of public services. Finally, the strongest relationship in the model is the effect of intention to use on using the Wiqaytna application. Based on these findings, suggestions are made for policymakers. First, a significant effort must be made to improve citizens' awareness of the importance of such an application for the control of the pandemic, even after the launch of the vaccination campaign and the application of social distancing measures. Indeed, a few posters here and there and a few commercials are not enough. An effective communication strategy must be built to explain to citizens the critical role these applications can play and reduce fears about citizens' privacy to increase the adoption rate of these applications. Secondly, the role of social influence is critical in adopting applications. This must be considered in communication campaigns and the involvement of opinion leaders and influencers to be more effective and increase the intention to use them.

E-Government or e-Gov initiatives have attracted substantial public investment by governments around the world. This trend is driven by the premise that these systems improve efficiency, transform public services and enable citizen participation in social democratic processes. The paradox, however, is that unfortunately many such initiatives, particularly in emerging economies like Pakistan, fail to achieve these intended outcomes. The reality is that despite huge investments two issues persist: firstly, a low level of adoption of e-Gov services; and secondly, an inability to achieve the desired impact. Adoption is typically explained in the literature with reference to characteristics of technology, while individual technology disposition is ignored. Impact is typically measured by techno-economic parameters, albeit that impact is best determined by those who use the services – citizens, measured in terms of public value (PV). This study examined the antecedents of technology adoption and creation of public value impact thereof for individual citizens. Adoption concerns the interaction between system characteristics and individual dispositions, while impact is determined by perceptions of value created by the uptake of e-Gov systems by citizens. The study used a mixed methods approach, with an online survey to collect data and examined adoption and PV using the multivariate technique of Structured Equation Modelling (SEM). Open-ended questions, supplemented by nine semi-structured interviews with senior managers in the government, served to assess how government can support the adoption and creation of public value in Pakistan. Study findings reveal a significant positive relationship exists between motivating dispositions of optimism and innovativeness and e-Gov use, and a significant negative relationship exists between inhibiting dispositions of discomfort and insecurity and e-Gov use. These results validate the construct of technology readiness (TR) in the context of Pakistan. Both sub-dimensions of TR, motivators and inhibitors were, however, found to have no significant influence on user satisfaction. Conversely, all system characteristics, information, system and service quality appear to influence user satisfaction (US), but with service quality the strongest determinant of US. This latter distinction is important because it emerges that US is more strongly associated with the creation of PV. Both information and service quality positively influence e-Gov use, however system quality appears not to have any significant influence on e-Gov use, presumably because technology is now sufficiently advanced for functionality to be normalised as a user expectation. Addressing a gap in the literature concerning what constitutes success in e-Gov initiatives, this study suggests both use of e-Gov services and associated user satisfaction, which is derived from accessing these services, are important. However, while both considerations are central to success, there is a spectrum in PV creation that ranges from cost-based operational efficiency to user-centred functional effectiveness and to increased public participation in social and democratic processes. These three conditions make up a novel PV impact framework, with two enabling attributes, trust and transparency, also identified. Methodologically, the study identifies a user-centric policy and practice framework for practitioners to direct policy efforts towards e-Gov adoption and creation of PV. The framework includes three tensions that arguably sustain the e-Gov paradox. The first tension is ad-hoc policy which exists due to the lack of an enabling environment, and in this study is characterised by bureaucratic inertia and decision-making stovepipes or silos. A second tension is the tendency for policy to be decoupled from implementation due to lack of an integrating e-Gov practice framework to bridge the digital divide(s). This is evident in the variable access to infrastructure and high cost, as well as varying urban/rural needs, digital literacy and language competence, with a significant majority of users being more comfortable using a local language rather than English, the official language of government. A third tension is the tendency for e-Gov practitioners and the Digital Pakistan Policy (DPP) to be blind to identifying and meeting user or demand-side needs. Key enablers of this user-centric view of PV are design-based trust and the establishment of a system of redressal. In summary, there are direct and indirect factors that drive public value creation, with the core need identified for governments is to shift from a provider-centred focus to a citizen-centred or user focus. The e-Gov policy and practice framework can help practitioners and researchers alike to both inform and examine policy efforts related to e-Gov uptake and PV creation based on measuring what matters most for the user. These study findings are likely to be of keen relevance to decision-makers in the Government of Pakistan and other emerging economies wishing to bridge the e-Gov paradox noted in literature.

This chapter examines South African consumers' patterns of adoption of electronic governance systems. Three elements related to e-government adoption are examined. Firstly, the development of e-government in South Africa is explored. Secondly, the chapter investigates the barriers constraining the public's utilisation of e-gov. Thirdly, suggestions on how e-government initiatives could be better aligned to the Principles of Batho Pele, or people-centred governance, are proffered. To achieve the first objective, an extensive review of the literature encapsulating e-government, South African public services, information communication technologies and commerce is conducted. To achieve the second objective, a survey of 349 consumers from two South African provinces was conducted to explore barriers associated with e-gov adoption. Findings show that although the Batho Pele Principles are pronounced in public sector organisations' missions, their implementation within e-gov still remains a challenge. A plethora of challenges were observed to retard e-government adoption.

This chapter examines South African consumers' patterns of adoption of electronic governance systems. Three elements related to e-government adoption are examined. Firstly, the development of e-government in South Africa is explored. Secondly, the chapter investigates the barriers constraining the public's utilisation of e-gov. Thirdly, suggestions on how e-government initiatives could be better aligned to the Principles of Batho Pele, or people-centred governance, are proffered. To achieve the first objective, an extensive review of the literature encapsulating e-government, South African public services, information communication technologies and commerce is conducted. To achieve the second objective, a survey of 349 consumers from two South African provinces was conducted to explore barriers associated with e-gov adoption. Findings show that although the Batho Pele Principles are pronounced in public sector organisations' missions, their implementation within e-gov still remains a challenge. A plethora of challenges were observed to retard e-government adoption.

This chapter reviews various strategic frameworks for e-government which include goals and objectives. Among typical goals are the following: efficiency for the government agency, convenience for using public, and involvement for the citizen. Measurement dimensions for projects that contribute to these goals are defined (e.g., dollar value of savings) for the efficiency goal. From an efficiency standpoint, it is contended that projects can be viewed as providing “cashable” benefits for the government agency in terms of continuing revenue streams. Empirical evidence is cited showing the existence of various highyield e-government projects, as evinced by payback periods which average less than one year. Such high potential returns provide justification for further development of e-government services. If government entities underwrite the development costs of such projects, then they could not only recover their costs, but also derive the wherewithal to fund future e-government projects that can serve a variety of goals.

Keywords: transformational government (t-Gov); interoperability; privacy; trust; SOA; SaaS; business process management; t-Gov adoption and diffusion; public administration; enterprise integration; content management; web 2.0.

The potential success of e-government depends on its citizens’ adopting on-line services and the security of those services. However, despite the development and diffusion of a variety of government services on the Internet, little research has been carried out regarding; (1) the impact of perceived confidentiality of a user’s information on his/her intention to use the service, and (2) the relationship between intention towards repeated use and satisfaction derived from service performance of government. (3) The moderating effect of demographic characteristics (gender and race difference) on the relationship between a user’s satisfaction, confidentiality and repeated use intention. This paper develops an integrated framework of intentions towards repeated use with a level of confidential information shared by a user as one factor and e-government satisfaction derived from service performance as another factor. The results suggest that a user’s intention to continue using government websites is related to the user’s satisfaction, perceived performance of the website and the requirement for confidential information. This research also confirms that gender difference does moderate the relationship between users’ satisfaction levels and repeated use intention. Race difference has an effect on the strength of the relationship between the user’s perceived confidentiality and repeated use intention.

This study is an attempt to benchmark two e-governance projects that totally revamped the existing revenue administration system in India. It employs Gartner (2000), Layne and Lee (2001) e-governance maturity models to assess the status of these land administration projects implemented in 15 Indian states. The study traces the current status, pace of implementation, integration of the projects across different levels and different functions of government, its benefits, transparency, accountability, and accessibility of the projects. It also identifies and investigates the gap that exists between the expected outcome and real outcome of the projects. Results shows that in states like Goa, Haryana, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Karnataka and Andhra Pradesh, where property registration project has been integrated with computerization of land records project, there exists a monitoring mechanism to facilitate genuine land transactions, and land records are automatically managed up-to-date with least human intervention. But, in all other states there is only sub-optimal utilization or non-utilization of assets, even after a decade of implementation.

The potential success of e-government depends on its citizens adopting online services and the security of those services. However, despite the development and diffusion of a variety of government services on the Internet, little research has been carried out regarding: (1) the impact of perceived confidentiality of a user’s information on his or her intention to use the service; (2) the relationship between intention towards repeated use and satisfaction derived from service performance of government; and (3) the moderating effect of demographic characteristics (gender and race difference) on the relationship between a user’s satisfaction, confidentiality and repeated use intention. This paper develops an integrated framework of intentions towards repeated use with a level of confidential information shared by a user as one factor and e-government satisfaction derived from service performance as another factor. The results suggest that a user’s intention to continue using government Web sites is related to the user’s satisfaction, perceived performance of the Web site and the requirement for confidential information. This research also confirms that gender difference does moderate the relationship between users’ satisfaction levels and repeated use intention. Race difference has an effect on the strength of the relationship between the user’s perceived confidentiality and repeated use intention.

The visually-impaired are in a distinctive disadvantage when using computer screens based on visual presentation of data. Their situation becomes increasingly critical, as most society services, including issues such as e-Commerce, e-Business, e-Health, and e-Government go on-line. Yet modern technologies can too offer solutions to their problems, both at hardware and software level, and often with reasonable cost. Effective ICT can open up new communication channels and functionalities for say totally blind people, which would not have been available for them otherwise. General sensitivity for this issue, and especially, sensitivity among designers of governmental e-services must be developed. E-Government is an especially demanding activity area as it comes to all sorts of imparities (not just vision impairment), as governmental services are often in a monopoly service delivery situation: citizen have to use them, and there is often no other alternative. The issue binds it to the wider discussion on digital divide, where vision impairment is one cause for digital divide, and often very devastating, especially if still combined with other sources of digital divide.

This paper examines the paradox of FOSS adoption in U.S. institutions of higher education, where campus-wide deployment of FOSS for e-learning lags far behind adoption for technical infrastructure applications. Drawing on the fields of organizational management, information systems, and education, the author argues that the gap between the advocacy for FOSS teaching and learning applications and the enterprise-wide deployment of FOSS for e-learning is a consequence of the divergent perspectives of two organizational sub-cultures—the technologist and the academic—and the extent to which those sub-cultures are likely to embrace FOSS. The author recommends (a) collaborative needs analysis/assessment prior to a go/no go adoption decision, and (b) broad dissemination of total cost of ownership (TCO) data by institutions deploying FOSS for e-learning enterprise-wide. This discussion satisfies e-learning administrators and practitioners seeking research-based, cross-disciplinary evidence about the FOSS decision-making process and also assists educators in graduate degree programs seeking to expand student knowledge of e-learning technology options.

The e-commerce market has grown tremendously in India over the last few years across all product categories and industry verticals. In this chapter, an attempt has been made to identify and explore the two factors that influence the success of adoption of e-commerce by apparel selling firms in India. The explored factors are the consumer internet self-efficacy (derived from compatibility) and user friendliness of websites (derived from trialability). Further, relationship between the factors and their influence on the successful adoption of e-commerce has been analysed through structured equation modelling (SEM) technique. Thus, this research study adds on to earlier research studies pertaining to innovation and diffusion theory. The findings will be helpful for the decision makers and managers in recognizing the most important circumstances under which the apparel selling firms will go for e-commerce adoption.

2021 represents the consolidation for e-commerce growth globally. Started in 2020, driven by COVID19 pandemic, consumers have been forced to drastically change their behaviors and preferences.Due to the disruption caused, people needed to remain at home to be safe, thus, ecommerce platforms represented a life saver as consumers were able to buy online and, either wait for the products to be delivered or decide to pick them up.Several platforms such as Amazon or Mercado Libre, retail ecommerce like Walmart and brand D2C platforms showed huge YoY growth, accelerating the adoption of these technologies as people are getting more comfortable by using them.However, there is one problem that remains unsolved. In countries like Mexico or China, shopping is seen as a leisure activity in which people enjoy by socializing with friends and family while having meaningful in-store experiences.It becomes more relevant when is deeply affecting Gen Z, the largest population cohort with more than 2.5 billion people, especially in two key topics:1.Individuals within this cohort have had to perform in-home most of the typical outdoor activities, such as shopping. 2.Even though Gen Z is digital native, 72% of them consider that the physical interaction and experiences are as, or more, important as digital experiences.Thus, we identified some questions to be answered: How to develop a technological solution to provide consumers a meaningful, yet safe, digital/physical shopping experience? What behaviors need to be changed? Which technologies are now available to do so?To answer these questions, we focused on ways to improve the UX offered by ecommerce platforms, trying to follow a different direction than the “1-click” model. Therefore, we found a solution within the metaverse, which enabled us to provide meaningful and immersive experiences to consumers focused especially on Gen Z, a generation with needs, limitations, and skills different from others. We have called the solution “hibe”.hibe is the first virtual mall in Mexico within a metaverse. It was built including an e-commerce platform as the boutiques’ engine, as well as gaming and advertising capabilities across the mall. In addition, we have followed a phygital model, to organically connect the digital and physical worlds through meaningful and immersive experiences.For our first use case we collaborated with adidas Mexico. Together, we launched 3 different models of sneaker’s collaboration with Jeremy Scott. We developed experiences in hibe to enable more than 1,000 users to win the opportunity to buy them, making it fair and clear for everyone. To close the experience, they had to go to a “Lust” boutique, pay, live an in-store brand experience, and pick their sneakers up.Overall, we conclude that users, are eager to try new-immersive experiences we are offering with our venture. They have highlighted how important is for brands to improve the way they connect and engage their consumers. hibe now represents a venture approaching this field of practical application in Mexico, just like Roblox and Fortnite are doing abroad.

Abstract In conventional production management, a lot of production reporting is dependent on the analysis of a vast amount of data from different sources - this is the key to effectively analyze the behavior of the production systems and plan timely interventions. More often than not, as the E&P organizations go through the production lifecycle, it becomes increasingly difficult to keep this data in a structured format and a place where it can be easily accessed by the end users for their day-to-day workflows (Moustafa, et al., 2020). This paper talks about a digital initiative for Sonatrach to automate daily production reporting, provide efficient access to production data and deliver powerful analytical capabilities to end users through role-based information dashboards. The legacy approach to production reporting relied heavily on the Sonatrach staff manually gathering production data through Excel spreadsheets from the seventeen in-country joint ventures (JVs), which consumed significant staff productivity and carried a high potential for erroneous data entries. Moreover, the lack of a structured system of records to store JVs production data restricted the staff's ability to meaningfully collaborate with and contribute their expertise to the JVs. On the other hand, the huge pile up of these Excel spreadsheets created a data entropy and bottlenecked efficient production data management. The digital solution implemented to overcome these challenges involved 1 - Configuration of detailed production information dashboards that enabled all the organizational stakeholders to access actionable information, anytime and from anywhere, 2 - Automation of all the tasks related to manual data handling, 3 - Delivery of a central production data repository (CPDR), which stored all the relevant production data by integrating with JVs source systems and fed production dashboards with the quality data, 4 - Establishment of a technology platform to drive workflows and insight-driven analytics The implementation of this bespoke digital system enabled maximum utilization and faster adoption of the technology. The high degree of automation eliminated the time-consuming efforts and let Sonatrach's staff focus on high value tasks. In addition to that, it resulted in an improved collaboration between them & the JVs and a better utilization of Sonatrach's expertise. The detailed dashboards provided a better oversight of the operations and delivery of the business plans, and a unified database secured the opportunity for advanced analytics and better identification of production enhancements. The new solution, built on an open & scalable architecture, opened the pathways to accommodate additional workflows, business rules, dashboards and new data sources without costly workarounds associated with closed and proprietary systems. As a result, it has proved to be an important cogwheel in Sonatrach's digital transformation journey.

Abstract Objective / Scope The main objective of the paper to showcase PDO successful journey in transferring Continuous Improvement (CI) knowledge to targeted entities within the government of the Sultanate of Oman by building CI capabilities to deliver significant improvement activity. Effectively after signing the MOU with Oman Vision 2040 Unit in 2019 for 5 years, a full CI transformation program kicked off to change the culture of the public sector from the inherited bureaucracy of which has the top leader is the showman, to a new way of working where the top leaders considered as the enabler of the progress (the main sponsor), wearing the learner hat, to understand the challenges from the front line of the business, be able to coach them to achieve their goals with minimal influence to their day to day work and huge encouragement to break down walls having them reach towards their desired destination. This supports the government's target to position Oman as an attractive environment for ease of doing business & the deployment plan focuses on building local CI capability within each entity, replicating improvements across the other entities, sustainability, and Leadership coaching. Methods, Procedure, Process Petroleum Development Oman (PDO) has more than 10 years' experience in the journey of Continuous Improvement. The experience is healthy with inflections and corrections over the course of progress until it covered all the organization vertically and horizontally. In 2020 it covered all functions and reached two level of categories spanning all staff: CI Professionals and CI Generalist. This concept and culture change can't be simulated into the government as is. It had to go through some modification for easy adoption and faster implementation. Building individual skills takes its own course of time, so the CI Professionals of PDO were posted into the core government system, the Oman Vision 2040 Implementation and Follow-up Unit. This allows immediate impact into the system and swift digital transformation to the centralized dashboard reviewed by leadership to sustain improvements. While the transformation takes place, PDO takes internally, 15 highly competent individuals from different government entities, as a secondment for 3 years development program to become accredited CI coaches and ultimately take their learning back to their organizations. Additionally, PDO provided the nation with a free online access to one of the problem-solving methodologies "Lean Awareness". This online session is developed to support a nationwide buy-in as part of the change management efforts to increase the awareness of continuous improvement. Results, Observation, Conclusions The high-level value delivered by the CI Deployment in the Government can be sampled from any of the CI projects delivered, E.g., the 90% improvement to the 'starting a new business process'. The overall scale, scope, and speed of improvement projects across the government entities is unprecedented. However, value is much more than the process improvements, such as: PDO Omani expertise being utilized to accelerate CI Capability across the Government. Improving starting business process by 90% from 10 months to 1.25 months. To "Lean" over 100 government services in 12 different entities by end of 2021. PDO improved cross-organization process with Government Entities E.g. Environment Authority permits, Manpower etc. Accelerating the progress of National Digital Transformation Program led by Ministry of Transport, Telecommunication & Information Technology. Build in house and sustainable capability for the government sector. Overall, the value to PDO, the Government and Oman is priceless for the longterm sustainability of the country. Novel, Additive information This initiative has had a hugely positive impact on PDO & Oman in the last 3 years and will continue to do so, moving towards end of 2022 and beyond the project team is working closely with Oman e-government team to assist the government to shift from egovernment to Digital government to Smart government - a real game changing innovative shift for Oman. This project is a true example of how Omani expertise developed and nurtured within PDO is being used to power Oman towards vision 2040 and is a fantastic example of our organization creating in-country value.

Over the recent decades, the changes in the paradigm of international trade have been observed. As the result of decreasing of trade barriers as well as the reduction in trade costs allowed companies to divide their production into stages and to locate it in different countries according to their competitive advantage. Eventually, the production process has become more fragmented, both geographically and vertically. It means that intermediate products are shipped across boarders many times and every exporting economy provides some value added according to its competitive advantage. As a result, global value chains have become one of the most important feature of international trade. Following (Gereffi & Fernandez-Stark, 2011), in this study global value chains are defined as “the full range of activities that firms and workers do to bring a product from its conception to its end use”. Humphrey and Schmitz (2002) pointed out four types of upgrading in global value chains: product, process, functional and chain. Product and process upgrading involve companies retaining their positions in global value chains by enhancing productivity gains through adopting new product processes or “new configurations of product mix”. Thus, functional upgrading involves a slicing up the global value chains into new activity which generates higher value added, e.g. own brand manufacturing. In turn, chain upgrading involves a going up to new activity, which needs higher skills and capital and value added. Milberg and Winkler (2013) offered similar classifications of upgrading. Production fragmentation has caused a rapid increase in trade in intermediate goods as often companies offshore an intermediate stage of production process. Offshoring production has been typical to manufacturing (Timmer, et al., 2012), however, services have been often overlooked, but play a major role, especially in supporting global value chains (Kommerskollegium 2013). In turn, Digital Silk Road, announced in 2015, has become a significant part of Chinese Belt and Road Initiative strategy. China has implemented this strategy as a part of its long-term technological plan, under which China provides support to its exporters, including many well-known technology companies and builds a network of cooperation with selected countries in the field of technology, including ICT infrastructure, services, 5G networks, e-commerce, etc. China's rapid technological changes must not go unnoticed by trading partners, including analysed European countries, which, to maintain international competitiveness, are increasing the technological advancement and enhancing market protection against Chinese technology. Until recently, the value added from China to European countries was concentrated mainly on medium technology industries and value added from Europe to China focused more on advanced goods and services. Nowadays, there is a redirection of Chinese value added to high-tech activities (including service activities), which reflects China's ambition to build an economy that leads to innovation and industry 4.0. The transition of the CEE states’ economic and political systems initiated in the early 1990s, earned them the EU membership in 2004. The accession to the EU’s structures meant that these countries achieved the free-market economy status and they should be treated as the full member of the global business networks. Moreover, the decline in trade costs (transport and transaction), greater openness of their market and the removal of trade barriers have all helped the CEE states to join global value chains. Hence, the CEE economies are going to be more heavily involved in global production linkages. Many empirical studies have presented the close and dynamic integration of these countries with the EU market (especially the EU-15) and in a more limited scope with the whole global economy as well (Behar and Freund 2011). Generally, democratisation, the strengthening of political and economic relations (particularly with the EU), and the modernisation of many sectors (including financial sector, more advanced industries), were common elements of the CEE countries long-term development policies. One of their priorities was the redirection of foreign trade towards the EU and joining the global production linkages where China has become the core producer. Recently, the role of the economy in global value chains is more determined by the advancement of value added that it offers. Companies move toward services and innovations in the business model (Nenenen & Storbacka, 2010) and introduce industry 4.0 (Bundesministerium fur Bildung und Forschung, 2016). A symptom of these novelty is a concept of servicification of manufacturing (Neely et al. 2011) and cross-sectoral connections, which have reconstructed traditional global value chains (Naude et al. 2019) and, together with Industry 4.0, is expected to change the landscape of global manufacturing. As a result of facilitation of manufacturing, economies placed in the downstream market can improve their role in global value chains. In Europe, this can be an opportunity for most Central and Eastern European countries. Analyzing changes in CEE’s role in technological global value chains, we should take into account its two most important value-added suppliers: China and Germany, as well as their most important value-added buyer - Germany. These three economies established a sort of value added flows triangle. The regional supply chains built by Germany in the CEE allowed it to maintain a comparative advantage in sectors important for the economy, while helping the CEE countries join global value chains, positively influencing economic growth, but also reducing them to entities operating in less advanced stages of production (Jacoby, 2010; Fortwengel, 2011). Today, Germany also cooperates strongly with China (as a result of Digital Silk Road), and the CEE economies (especially the Visegrad Group) are increasingly dependent on Chinese value added, still linked to German value added. The most visible connections can be found in automotive and electronics. Hence, the question is: how strong are these links in servicification of manufacturing and whether there are visible trends in value-added flows in between this triangle in the era of industry 4.0 and Chinese Digital Silk Road. The research question seems to be relevant, thus in the subject literature, little is known about the mentioned relations (Roland Berger, 2021). The research method based on the analysis of data from the OECD Trade in Value Added databases, containing the world input-output tables for the period 2005–2018. The system of balance equations in the input-output model for one economy has been adopted to a multi-economy model. The model is described in more detail in (Koopman et al. 2013 or Hummels et al, 2001) and is based on the decomposition of gross exports. The method includes not only estimates of total value added in global value chains, but also calculations at both the mezoeconomic level and cross-sectoral flows of value added (including servicification of manufacturing). The results of analysis showed that most relations between economies continued to deepen the imbalance in flows of value added. The CEE economies are making their manufacturing increasingly dependent on advanced services (both from Germany and China). On the other hand, the share of CEE services to Chinese and German manufacturing is decreasing or remains steady. However, some trends could be observed in the last years, especially between Germany and China. German manufacturing is starting to rely more on Chinese value added (information and communication technologies services and the subgroup computer programming, consultancy and information services activities in manufacturing, information and communication technologies services' value added in transport equipment), although previously Germany provided more of these services to China. In telecommunications in manufacturing between CEE and Germany, the trend has turned against CEE. However, there was no direct compensation between pairs of economies, but the decrease in German value-added flows to China resulted in a much larger increase in value-added from China in German manufacturing. If the presented changes in flows were to reflect the effectiveness of Chinese industry 4.0 and Digital Silk Road. These strategies serve their purposes and increases not only the advancement of Chinese value-added exports, but also makes important economies dependent on this added value. On the contrary, the industry 4.0 strategy in CEE has not improved its position in the triad. Germany has still a strong position as a provider of value added, but its dependence on foreign value added is high, which derives from the links with CEE.

Realities such as the COVID-19 pandemic have expedited the move to online operations, highlighting the undeniable fact that the world is continuing to go digital. This emphasises the need for policymakers to regulate in a manner that allows them to harness digital trade benefits while also avoiding associated risk. However, given that digital trade remains unco-ordinated globally, with countries adopting different approaches to policy issues, national regulatory divergence on the matter continues, placing limits on the benefits that countries can obtain from digital trade. Given these disparities, ahead of the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) Phase II Negotiations, African countries have been considering the best way to harmonise regulations on issues related to digital trade. To do this effectively, AfCFTA members need to identify where divergencies exist in their domestic regulatory systems. This will allow AfCFTA members to determine where harmonisation is possible, as well as what is needed to achieve such harmonisation. This report analyses the domestic regulations and policies of four focus countries – South Africa, Nigeria, Kenya and Senegal – comparing their regulatory approaches to five policy issues: i) regulation of online transactions; ii) cross-border data flows, data localisation, and personal data protection; iii) access to source code and technology transfer; iv) intermediary liability; and v) customs duties on electronic transmissions. The study highlights where divergencies exist in adopted approaches, indicating the need for the four countries – and AfCFTA members in general – to carefully consider the implications of the divergences, and determine where it is possible and beneficial to harmonise approaches. This was intended to encourage AfCFTA member states to take ownership of these issues and reflect on the reforms needed. As seen in Table 1 below, the study shows that the four countries diverge on most of the five policy issues. There are differences in how all four countries regulate online transactions – that is, e-signatures and online consumer protection. Nigeria was the only country out of the four to recognise all types of e-signatures as legally equivalent. Kenya and Senegal only recognise specific e-signatures, which are either issued or validated by a recognised institution, while South Africa adopts a mixed approach, where it recognises all e-signatures as legally valid, but provides higher evidentiary weight to certain types of e-signatures. Only South Africa and Senegal have specific regulations relating to online consumer protection, while Nigeria and Kenya do not have any clear rules. With regards to cross border data flows, data localisation, and personal data protection, the study shows that all four focus countries have regulations that consist of elements borrowed from the European Union (EU) General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR). In particular, this was regarding the need for the data subject's consent, and also the adequacy requirement. Interestingly, the study also shows that South Africa, Kenya and Nigeria also adopt data localisation measures, although at different levels of strictness. South Africa’s data localisation laws are mostly imposed on data that is considered critical – which is then required to be processed within South African borders – while Nigeria requires all data to be processed and stored locally, using local servers. Kenya imposes data localisation measures that are mostly linked to its priority for data privacy. Out of the four focus countries, Senegal is the only country that does not impose any data localisation laws. Although the study shows that all four countries share a position on customs duties on electronic transmissions, it is also interesting to note that none of the four countries currently have domestic regulations or policies on the subject. The report concludes by highlighting that, as the AfCFTA Phase II Negotiations aim to arrive at harmonisation and to improve intra-African trade and international trade, AfCFTA members should reflect on their national policies and domestic regulations to determine where harmonisation is needed, and whether AfCFTA is the right platform for achieving this efficiently.