Dissertations / Theses on the topic 'Models of the electronic government services'

Electronic services have become a vital part in the implementation of electronic government. Government electronic services are significant tools for effective cooperation in any country between government, authorities, citizens, organisations, and so on. In order to implement these services it is necessary to know possible barriers and obstacles – factors, which can influence on the implementation process. Study in this field of research showed that a well-structured list of the factors that can influence on this implementation process is absent now. The purpose of this research is to identify and collect, analyse and structure different factors that can influence the implementation process of electronic government services. The collected list of factors have studied in the case of Ukraine. This research was conducted within the scope of Master’s level program in Linnaeus University, Sweden. In this research was used the mix method approach. The qualitative study was conducting through literature review and six interviews with people related to electronic government services. At the same time, as quantitative study was a survey with 131 answers from citizens. For analysing and structuring were using the Onion Ring Model of electronic government systems (Heeks, 2006) and the STEPLED analysis. The philosophical worldview of the research paper is social constructivism. During the research, I have studied more than 200 factors from different works of authors, which worked in this field. All collected factors were analysed and adapted in accordance to the Onion Ring Model. In addition, this model was modified by adding interlayers (additional rings) and extended in the Environment ring (with the usage of the STEPLED analysis). From the collected list were highlighted factors that influence on the implementation process in the case of Ukraine.

Temos aktualumas ir mokslinė problema. Elektroninės valdžios raidos tendencijos, jų svarba valdžios įstaigų veiklos efektyvumui ir visuomeninių lūkesčių įgyvendinimui didinti bei demokratijai plėtoti yra neabejotina (Millard, J., 2003). Elektroninė valdžia dažniausiai suvokiama kaip valstybinės valdžios tąsa elektroninėje erdvėje, pasireiškianti kaip valstybės funkcijų realizavimas, organizacinių pokyčių tobulinimas pasitelkiant informacines technologijas (Designing E-Government, 2002). Elektroninė valdžia yra vienas iš būdų modernizuoti valstybės valdymą, sėkmingai vykdyti valstybės reformą, prisitaikant prie žinių visuomenės reikalavimų (Augustinaitis, A., Petrauskas, R., 2002, Paliulis, N., Jurkėnaitė, N., 2006), pagerinti visuomenės ir valdžios ryšio kokybę (Limba, T., Petrauskas, R., 2004). Dėl šių priežasčių elektroninė valdžia gali ir turi tapti vienu iš valstybės strateginio valdymo įgyvendinimo efektyvių veiksnių ir prioritetų (Andersen, K. V., Henriksen, H. Z., 2005) Iki šiol diskutuojama (Dillon, S., Deakins, E., Chen, W., 2005; Domarkas, V., Lukoševičienė, V., 2006), kuris elektroninės valdžios bruožas yra svarbiausias, ir pateikta nemažai elektroninės valdžios sąvokų aiškinimų bei jos esmės vertinimų. Daugumoje diskusijų (Goldkuhl, G., Persson, A., 2006; Buckley, J., 2003; Burn, J., Robins, G., 2003) pripažįstama, jog esminiai elektroninės valdžios įgyvendinimo principai paremti šiuolaikinių informacinių technologijų taikymu, sukuriant naujus būdus ir galimybes... [toliau žr. visą tekstą]<br>Topic relevance and the scientific issue. Development trends of electronic government, their importance for the efficiency of state institutions and for increasing the implementation of public expectations as well as for the development of democracy is undoubted (Millard J., 2003). Electronic government is commonly perceived as the prolongation of state government in electronic space, manifesting itself as realization of state functions, improvement of organizational changes while applying information technologies (Designing E-Government, 2002). Electronic government is one of the ways to modernize state government, to carry out the state reform, while adjusting to the requirements of the knowledge society (Augustinaitis, A., Petrauskas, R., 2002, Paliulis, N., Jurkenaitė, N., 2006), to improve the quality of the relation between the public and the government (Limba, T., Petrauskas, R., 2004). Due to the above mentioned reasons electronic government is able to and has to become one of the effective elements and priorities to the implementation of strategic governance of the state (Andersen, K. V., Henriksen, H. Z., 2005). Discussions keep going on (Dillon, S., Deakins, E., Chen, W., 2005; Domarkas, V., Lukoševicienė, V., 2006) about which of the electronic government features is the most important. There has been a number of concept interpretations of electronic government and constructions of its essence. It is admitted in most discussions (Goldkuhl, G., Persson, A., 2006... [to full text]

O governo eletrônico (e-gov) diz respeito a todas as formas de comunicação realizadas por meio de tecnologia de informação (TI) que podem trazer uma série de benefícios para os órgãos públicos de modo geral. Por se tratar de uma tecnologia recente, existem muitos recursos que podem explorados em benefício tanto do governo quanto dos cidadãos e das empresas que interagem por meio dessa ferramenta. Apesar de apresentar um conjunto considerável de oportunidades, o governo eletrônico e as novas formas de interação pública advinda da utilização da TI podem propiciar algumas ameaças como é o caso de, em vez de melhorar um processo burocrático, apenas utilizar a forma eletrônica para seu acesso e processamento de forma informatizada. Para que, neste contexto, as oportunidades sejam aproveitadas e as ameaças evitadas, este estudo propôs um modelo de análise dos serviços de sites de governo eletrônico. Inicialmente, o modelo foi avaliado por meio da análise de conteúdo de sites de e-gov dos cinco estados com o maior número de sites que, somados, representam 50% dos sites de e-gov nacional que são os estados de São Paulo, Paraná, Minas Gerais, Rio Grande do Sul e Santa Catarina. Esta primeira análise possibilitou o desenvolvimento de uma matriz SWOT dos sitess analisados e, então, partiu-se para a avaliação do modelo por meio de pesquisas do tipo grupo focado e pesquisa quantitativa por meio de aplicação de questionários focados no site do Poupa Tempo. Os resultados obtidos por meio destas análises foram semelhantes, o que permitiu concluir que o modelo proposto é um instrumento válido para analisar os serviços de sites de e-gov. Outros resultados importantes também foram encontrados, como identificar os atributos que influenciam na satisfação dos usuários de serviços de e-gov. Dentre estes atributos destacaram-se o site fornecer informações de qualidade, oferecer o que era esperado e disponibilizar opções de comunicação que funcionam.<br>Electronic government (e-gov) refers to all forms of communication conducted through information technology (IT) that can bring several benefits to public bodies in a general form. Being a recent technology, there are many resources that can be exploited for the benefit of government, citizens and businesses that interact via this tool. Despite presenting a considerable range of opportunities, electronic government and new forms of public interaction arising from the use of IT can provide some threats such as instead of improving a bureaucratic process; just use the electronic form for access and processing in a computerized form. In order to have the opportunities to be exploited, in this context, and threats to be avoided, this study proposed a model for analysis of e-government service sites. Initially, the model was evaluated by analyzing the content of e-gov sites for the five states with the largest number of sites which together represent 50% of all national e-government sites, which are the states of São Paulo, Paraná , Minas Gerais, Rio Grande do Sul and Santa Catarina. This first analysis has made it possible the development of a SWOT of the analyzed sites and then the evaluation of the model through focus group and quantitative surveys using questionnaires focused on the site of \"Poupa Tempo\". The results obtained from these analyzes were similar, which made us conclude that the proposed model is a valid tool to analyze the services of e-gov sites. Other important results were also found, such as identifying the attributes that influence user satisfaction of e-government services. Among these attributes stood out the site to provide quality information, to offer what was expected, and to provide communication options that work out.

This research discusses Electronic Government (e-Government), in particular the challenges that face its development and widespread adoption in Saudi Arabia. In this research e-government is defined as a matrix of stakeholders: Government to Government, Government to Business and Government to Citizens, using information and communications technology to deliver and/or consume services. Electronic Government has been implemented in developed countries for some time, while in Saudi Arabia it is still at the implementation and developing stages. Electronic Government services face challenges, including trust, privacy, security, computer and information literacy, and culture. In addition, this research has identified the influential factors, including quality of service, diffusion of innovation, knowledge and skills, culture, lack of awareness, technical infrastructure, website design, security, privacy, and trust, that affect the citizens' intentions to adopt e-Government services in Saudi Arabia. Therefore, these factors have been evaluated using an exploratory study, which uses mixed-methods, to confirm that these proposed factors are important and that the citizens are concerned about them. Resulting form the exploratory study, this research ha developed an integrated model for aiding the Saudi government by identifying the factors that would influence citizens to adopt their services. The model has been validated by the main study for this research, including questionnaires for citizens, government employees and experts. The gathered data were analysed and assessed using the Structural Equation Modelling approach. From the main study, the results showed that the proposed model fits the data and applies to the Saudi context. Therefore, the validated model would be considered essential in order to help the Saudi government to overcome the concerns of their citizens to use and adopt the online services. Consequently, applying the proposed model can reduce the government's time, effort, and money in influencing their citizens' intentions to adopt the proposed online services.

During the last decade, governments around the world have realised the potential benefits of e-government and have started planning and allocating resources to make it possible. Despite the significant increase in such initiatives, there is evidence to suggest that stakeholder adoption of online government services has not yet met expectations. Thus, it is important to understand the factors that might influence people's intentions to adopt and use government services provided over the Internet. A literature review reveals several gaps, the most important being the limited research in the area of e-government adoption and acceptance in general and in developing countries in particular. This study, therefore, was undertaken with the primary aim of identifying, examining and providing an understanding of the intention and the factors that could affect the intention of firms to adopt and use e-government services. The Technology Acceptance Model (TAM) developed by Davis (1989) is used as a theoretical framework to build a conceptual model, while two additional constructs are utilized to measure the uncertainty arising from using government services over the Internet: perceived risk and trust. Finally, the modified TAM model and twenty-four hypotheses are proposed to explain and test the intention of businesses to adopt and use electronic government services. Data was collected by a mail survey; a questionnaire was sent to 500 companies in Jordan, having been validated using expert opinion and a pilot survey of 16 managers. Responses are analysed in line with the research questions. The findings are that four main factors affect firms' intention to engage in egovernment services: perceived ease of use, perceived usefulness, perceived risk and trust in electronic channels. Furthermore, four moderators firm size, Internet experience, manager's gender and age moderate the influence of adoption factors on intention. The modified research model explains more than half of the variance in firms' intention to adopt and use e-government services.

O objetivo desta pesquisa foi avaliar a qualidade dos serviços públicos eletrônicos sob a ótica dos gestores públicos e dos usuários. Para realizar tal pesquisa foram realizadas entrevistas em profundidade com os gestores públicos da cidade de Ribeirão Preto e da cidade de Vinhedo. E também, foram aplicados questionários em sua forma on line para avaliar a satisfação dos usuários em relação ao site municipal (cidade de Ribeirão Preto) e o site estadual (site do Programa Poupatempo). Os resultados obtidos na pesquisa foram que os itens relacionados à facilidade de uso do site, oferecimento do que era esperado, fornecimento das informações com qualidade e o estímulo do site ao uso repetido foram os fatores melhor avaliados pelos usuários na cidade de Ribeirão Preto. E na cidade de Vinhedo, os itens que foram melhores avaliados foram: o fornecimento das informações com qualidade, o estímulo do site ao uso repetido e o oferecimento do que era esperado. Tais resultados implicam que apesar das diferenças existentes entre as cidades, os itens relacionados à satisfação dos usuários foram praticamente os mesmos. Logo, esta pesquisa contribuiu para auxiliar os gestores públicos municipais a nortear as suas ações para melhoria da qualidade dos serviços públicos oferecidos. A pesquisa revelou a necessidade de uma efetiva coordenação por parte de órgãos federais no sentido de facilitar o desenvolvimento dos serviços de governo eletrônico. Pesquisas futuras nesta área poderiam replicar o questionário e as entrevistas aplicadas visando corroborar os elementos identificados em outras esferas governamentais.<br>The objective of this research was to evaluate the quality of the electronics from the perspective of public managers and users of public services. To conduct such research indepth interviews were conducted with public officials of the city of Ribeirão Preto and the town of Vinhedo. Also, questionnaires were administered in form online to evaluate user satisfaction in relation to the municipal website (Ribeirão Preto) and state site (the site Poupatempo Program). The results obtained in the study were that items related to ease of use of the site, offering what was expected, provision of quality information and encouragement to the repeated use of the site were the best factors evaluated by the users in the city of Ribeirão Preto. And in the town of Vinhedo, items that were best were: the provision of quality information, the stimulus site to repeated use and delivery than expected. These results imply that despite the differences between the cities, the items related to user satisfaction were almost the same. Therefore, this research has contributed to assist the municipal administrators to govern its actions to improve the quality of public services. The survey revealed the need for effective coordination by federal agencies to facilitate the development of electronic government services. Future research in this area could replicate the questionnaire and the interviews applied aiming to corroborate the elements identified in other spheres of government.

Among the many promises of the revolution in the information and communication technologies (ICT), particularly the Internet, continues to be its potential to significantly transform governments around the world. This transformation is referred to as e-government or web-based government, often used interchangeably in most of the IS literature. Despite these however, the level of adoption and use of such innovation is still low and does not meet expectations in developing countries in general and Jordan in particular. Yet, existing research on the adoption and implementation of e-government in developing countries is still lacking explanatory power for the following reasons: 1) focusing either on the supply-side, or on the demand-side separately to study the adoption and implementation of e-government, and therefore there is no enough research on the integration between them as a single phenomenon, and 2) focusing on the results of previous research, and therefore not to develop theories fit the new context to be investigated to understand the relationship between the IT implementation and social structures in the same context. This research aims to fill these gaps through the use of a holistic approach to enable in-depth understanding and gain valuable insights on the adoption and implementation of e-government from multiple perspectives, and in the real context of a developing country, namely Jordan. This would reduce the gap between government strategies and policies related to implementation of e-government services and applications on the one hand, and perceptions of citizens on the other hand, allowing a better understanding of the needs of citizens and the priorities that must be taken into account by governments in order to ensure the success of such projects on a large scale. Through two phases, this research proposes and empirically tests an integrated model of the determinants of adoption and implementation of e-government services and applications in Jordan. The first phase employs a grounded theory methodology for the development of the research model, as well as the survey instruments necessary to test the model. The second phase employs a survey questionnaire to test the research model using multivariate and SEM with the results demonstrating support for the proposed model. The empirical results indicate that perceived ease of use, perceived usefulness, and the security of e-government systems are no longer among the main determinants that affect the decision to adopt and implement e-government services and applications in this particular context. This confirms that the prevailing models and theories on the adoption of IT do not apply equally to the context of developing countries such as Jordan, and thus do not explain and predict behaviour toward the adoption and implementation of e-government services and applications in the same context. There is a direct and positive relationship between citizen involvement in the change process towards e-government and the decision to adopt and implement e-government services and applications. There is also a strong positive relationship between the decision to adopt and implement e-government services and applications and the decision to use such services and applications within the same context. Unexpectedly, the prevailing sociocultural determinants indicate a direct and positive relationship with the decision to adopt and implement e-government services and applications in the same context. Also, the results indicate direct and negative relationships between citizen trust and website design issues with the decision to adopt and implement e-government services and applications. Finally, the research concludes by highlighting the theoretical and practical implications, limitations and future directions.

This research work is based on intensive qualitative analysis towards the development of an e-Government platform for Nigeria a developing country in the West Africa sub-region. The case studies were carried out in some developed and developing countries that are useful and relevant to Nigeria e-Government. Having carefully reviewed the case studies, I observed that South Korea, United Kingdom and United States of America are using e-Government facilities to a considerable extent. Other countries such as China, Malaysia, Australia, India, and Ireland are still developing. The aim is to develop e-Government models for Nigeria by examining existing models used in Western countries and analysing those models which will help to solve some security issues, prevent corruption and save cost. This research led to the development of six e-Government models which led to the final Proposed Unified Nigeria e-Government Framework (see chapter 8, Figure 8.7) below. This Framework is to enhance the implementation and the adoption of e-Government at all levels.

Die Fragestellung dieser Arbeit ist ob derzeit angebotene e-Government Systeme von älteren Nutzern angenommen werden und wie solche aufgebaut werden müssen, damit diese Nutzergruppe solche Systeme als eine nützliche Alternative zu Behördengängen annimmt. In unserer Forschung haben wir erforscht wie solche Anwendungen, welche von der Verwaltung für die gesamte Bevölkerung angeboten werden, aufgebaut werden sollten, damit diese von der gesamten Bevölkerung erfolgreich genutzt werde können. Zur Beantwortung dieser Fragestellung wurde eine dreistufige Forschung durchgeführt, welche an das ISO 9241-210 Entwicklungsmodell angelehnt ist. Die Forschung wurde parallel in Deutschland und Ungarn in Kooperation mit dem Fraunhofer FOKUS, dem Bundesministerium des Innern, der Bundesdruckerei und der Corvinus Universität Budapest durchgeführt. In der ersten Phase wurden die Erwartungen und Vorkenntnisse der Zielgruppe erforscht um die Eckpunkte und Prämissen festlegen zu können. Diese Erkenntnisse ermöglichten in der zweiten Phase die fundierte Auswahl einer Anwendung, welche als Basis für Nutzertests genutzt werden konnte. Die Testanwendung war das AusweisApp des elektronischen Personalausweises. Bei diesen Tests wurden die Nutzerfehler erfasst und die Akzeptanz durch die ASQ Methode gemessen. Anhand der gewonnen Erkenntnisse konnte die Guideline IGUAN entwickelt werden, welche eine standardisierte Herangehensweise zur Akzeptanzsteigerung darstellt. Dieses Konzept beinhaltet neben den speziellen, an ältere Nutzer angepassten Anforderungen, einem Kriterienkatalog, sowie die Abbildung der Prozesse wodurch eine Erhöhung der Akzeptanz für Ältere ermöglicht wird. In der dritten Phase der Forschung konnte die Guideline durch eine iterative Prototypentwicklung evaluiert und geprüft werden. Wir konnten beweisen, dass Verbesserungen beim Interface e-Government Anwendungen an die alternde Gesellschaft näher bringen, die Motivation erhöhen und das Nutzerempfinden nachhaltig verbessern.<br>Our research focuses on the question of acceptance of current e-government systems by elderly users. It describes how such systems should be designed and offered for this user group in order to provide an acceptable alternative to offline processes. In order to answer our research question, the research was structured into three phases along the development model of the ISO 9241-210. This enabled to identify not only the main factors of acceptance, but also the expectations of elderly users. Our research was conducted in parallel in Germany and Hungary in cooperation with the Fraunhofer FOKUS, the Federal Ministry of Interior, the Bundesdruckerei and the Corvinus University Budapest. The first phase of our research provided results about the expectations and previous experience of the users with e-government systems. This set the premises for the next phases of our research and provided us with information about the theoretical acceptance of systems by the age group. The results made it possible to select an application in the second phase, which was used as a model in the remaining phases. The selected application was the AusweisApp of the electronic ID card. The test measured the encountered errors and the acceptance of the system with the ASQ method. The obtain results allowed us to develop a generalised solution, the IGUAN guideline. This guideline makes a standardised approach to the usability improvement process possible. It contains the special requirements of elderly users, and a catalogue of criteria, which helps to develop an application in line with the set requirements. The third phase of our research was used a proof of concept for the IGUAN. The guideline was evaluated and tested with an iterative prototyping. We could therefore demonstrate that improvements in the interface make e-government application possible which are perceived useful and easy to use by elderly users. These improvements will measurably increase the user motivation and experience.

E-tax is an important function of e-government since it is highly related to the life of citizens (Wu &amp; Chen, 2005). So in this paper I have discussed the factors influence the citizen adoption of government e-tax service. I have used the decomposed TPB model as my research model. This model integrated two important theories – TAM model and TPB model. The taxpayers were divided into adopters who have used the e-tax service and non-adopter who has used the conventional method to pay their tax. And the effect of these factors for adopters and non-adopters are different. Therefore, understand the factors’ effect can help governments formulate the corresponding measures to promote more citizens to use the e-tax service and lead to better planning and implementation of e-tax service.

Thesis (MTech (Information Technology))--Cape Peninsula University of Technology, 2015.<br>In a quest to offer better services to both citizens and businesses throughout Africa, efforts to adopt e-government projects are gaining momentum. As a result of this, there is a need for effective measurement of delivery and quality of such e-services. Currently, there are several metrics applied to measure and rank the e-readiness of various African countries. However, while these measures have provided a source of comparative analysis between different e-government projects, they are far from being perfect. For example, most of these measures are diverse and difficult to compare, since they assume ‘one size fits all’ and ignore differing environmental, cultural and contextual factors of various countries. Further criticisms of these measures are that they are ‘first generation metrics’ designed for developed countries, as opposed to developing countries. Thus, the crux of the research problem was that there are no suitable evaluation strategies for understanding and measuring the effectiveness of e-government services in order to improve the management thereof, and thereby attain the best possible value for citizens. The objective of this study was to develop a framework, for evaluating the effectiveness of e-government services in a typical developing country. Tanzania’s mainland was chosen as the context for this study: as a typical developing African country, its early phase of e-government development provided an optimal case for this study concerned with the useful and effective evaluation of e-government services. I have chosen a qualitative research method paradigm, underpinned by an interpretive approach, to facilitate both research objectives: developing an evaluation framework after determining the necessary evaluation parameters. Empirical evidence was gathered via interviews with e-government practitioners in Tanzania and via focus groups with selected citizens. Other sources of data included government documentation (policies and strategies) and government websites. The data was analysed through the combined application of an adapted grounded theory method and interpretation. Using the latter analytical processes several effectiveness dimensions of e-government services were derived. Through further analysis these were synthesised into the main output of the study viz. an e-government citizen satisfaction framework (ECSF). This framework, a unique contribution to the existing body of knowledge, demonstrates how citizen and government imperatives should be amalgamated to evaluate the effectiveness of e-government services. The findings further support and advance Information Technology management within government, as this is the first comprehensive framework to ensure an integrated approach for monitoring and evaluating e-government programmes. This study also combines important ideas from two existing domains—service management and IS evaluation—to generate new foundations leading to further work by researchers.

<p>The study seeks to investigate the perceived lack of coordination, integration, and coherence among units of government as related to eGovernment. The nature of the study is qualitative with a focus on the use of eGovernment in the public sector and whether it can facilitate intergovernmental forums business processes in an effective and efficient manner. The scope of the study is confined to the intergovernmental fiscal system but focused on eGovernment, intergovernmental relations, and cooperative governance. The primary objective of the study is to explore the use of eGovernment whether it can facilitate, coordinate, and integrate intergovernmental relations. Some studies portray that there are challenges in the coordination of intergovernmental forums which have resulted into a disintegration of services. The study further investigates options that could mitigate these challenges through acknowledging the effective application of ICTs (eGovernment) in government services. The study has found that South Africa has a functioning system of intergovernmental which are not effectively coordinated in terms of engaging each other in matters of mutual interest. On the other hand, eGovernment promised to bring about cohesion and transparency when they are effectively employed. The study revealed that the application of eGovernment in the intergovernmental forums has the capability to improve their operations, respond to its ineffective coordination and improve delivery of services. In a nutshell, the study has found that there is a need for a radical planning outlook that recognises proper utilization of eGovernment in the intergovernmental forums to promote cooperative governance.</p>

e-Government concept is an idea of electronic government. It is not only about providing services through the Internet or other electronic media, but also about improving of the state apparatus effectivity and about simplifying of the communication between public and private sectors, as well as among public authorities themselves. This thesis should serve as a basis for understanding to the issues related to e-Government. It provides answers to questions like these: What is e-Government? What does it offer to its users? etc.. It explains the development and the current situation of e-Government in the Czech Republic and in the European Union. An important contribution of the thesis should be the inclusion of a marketing viewpoint. It focuses exclusively on the Czech Republic and on the marketing communications, which are used by the public sector to promote e-Government activities and to provide information.

E-government services are rapidly becoming a permanent part of the governing process the world over. These services involve the use of the latest information and communication technologies to facilitate and enhance access to government information and services. E-government represents an entirely new mode of service delivery that promises some of the most important advances in the area of government accessibility since the advent of the modern welfare state. These resources have a number of unexplored social service applications that are examined in this study. E-government principles and practices are reviewed at the local and international levels, with particular attention paid to the Government of Canada's e-government initiative, known as Government On-Line (GOL). Seven specific e-government applications that can benefit social workers and clients are identified and discussed. The results of eight interviews with directors of local agencies regarding the future of e-government in social services are reported and examined. Specific recommendations and directions for future research are provided.

e-Government services are becoming one of the most important and efficient means by which governments (G) interact with businesses (B) and citizens (C). This has brought not only tremendous opportunities but also serious security challenges. Critical information assets are exposed to current and emerging security risks and threats. In the course of this study, it was learnt that e-government services are heavily guided and benchmarked by e-Government maturity models (eGMMs). However, the models lack built-in security services, technical as well as non-technical; leading to lack of strategic objectives alignment between e-government services and security services. Information security has an important role in mitigating security risks and threats posed to e-government services. Security improves quality of the services offered. In light of the above, the goal of this research work is to propose a framework that would facilitate government organisations to effectively offer appropriate secure e-government services. To achieve this goal, an empirical investigation was conducted in Tanzania involving six government organizations. The investigations were inter-foiled by a sequence of structural compositions resulting in a proposition of a framework for securing e-government services which integrates IT security services into eGMMs. The research work was mainly guided by a design science research approach complemented in parts by systemic-holistic and socio-technical approaches. The thesis contributes to the empirical and theoretical body of knowledge within the computer and systems sciences on securing e-government structures. It encompasses a new approach to secure e-government services incorporating security services into eGMMs. Also, it enhances the awareness, need and importance of security services to be an integral part of eGMMs to different groups such as researched organizations, academia, practitioners, policy and decision makers, stakeholders, and the community.<br><p>At the time of the doctoral defence the following paper was unpublished and had a status as follows: Paper nr. 6: In press</p>

There is an increased use of public e-services integrating citizens into public administration through electronic interfaces. The relation among parents and public schools is a daily and important relation that has to be trustworthy. On-line interaction among public organizations and citizens can be seen as e-government, indeed embedded into daily practices. A safe entry into such systems is essential for security and trust in the e-governmental systems and schools as well as public services in general. This paper addresses how electronic identification has been used for access to public e-services in schools in a Swedish municipality. The aim of the paper is to present a case study on how electronic identification is used and implemented in ICT platforms in schools. The analysis focuses on information security, organization and potential development of the platforms. The main finding in the case study is that there was an un-organized presentation of information in the system; both general and personal information had to be accessed with the same level of security (identification systems). The organization of identification and access to public e-services seemed highly dependent of the organizational structure of the public schools. The more general implication is that safe and well organized identification systems that are considered as trustworthy and useful among citizens are essential for increased use of the services and legitimate public e-services in general.<br>FUSe: Framtidens säkra elektroniska identifiering – framväxt och användning av e-legitimationer

<p>The potential for electronic media in the newspaper business is interesting. </p><p>The research about electronic media will bring demands on new thinking in </p><p>developing new value, income generating services and related business models. An </p><p>example of electronic media is electronic paper. This paper explores the added value </p><p>and payment methods for the e-paper. We have conducted future workshops with our </p><p>target group the reader. On the basis of future workshops this paper shows that </p><p>interaction, individualization, improved selection and content, environment friendly </p><p>and saving capabilities are necessities for the e-paper to be successful. We suggest </p><p>that the e-paper must be more than just an online newspaper for people to buy it.</p>

Thesis (M.S. in Information Technology Management)--Naval Postgraduate School, March 2003.<br>Thesis advisor(s): Thomas Housel, Glenn Cook. Includes bibliographical references (p. 87-90). Also available online.

Approved for public release; distribution is unlimited<br>While the Internet and related advances in communications technology provide significant opportunity for the federal government to vastly improve the delivery of information and services, success ultimately depends on government managers effectively redesigning industrial age processes for the information age. This thesis is intended as a guide for government managers interested in redesigning processes for the information age. Using a case study of a Department of Defense process for transferring conventional ammunition among the military services (cross-leveling), we demonstrate improved intragovernmental efficiency and effectiveness by employing best practices in business process redesign. After providing an overview of the existing cross-leveling process, each stage of Business Process Redesign is discussed and applied to the crossleveling case. Activity Based Costing and Knowledge Value Added are used in evaluating the existing process and for providing a measure of process improvement. Using a three-tier architecture, a prototype application was constructed to help visualize the redesigned process and demonstrate the underlying technology. The concepts and processes used in the crossleveling case study can be easily applied to other government processes.<br>Lieutenant Commander, United States Coast Guard<br>Lieutenant Junior Grade, United States Coast Guard

Information and Communication Technology (ICT) has evolved into a pervasive commodity in modern enterprises. ICT enables enterprises, regardless of sector, to achieve their strategic objectives. Similarly, ICT is regarded as a critical enabler in South African municipalities to reach their objectives and ultimately deliver sustainable services to their communities. This dependence on ICT, therefore, necessitates a resilient ICT environment where minimal disruption to ICT is a primary goal. Unfortunately, as reported by the Auditor-General of South Africa, the majority of South African municipalities are neglecting to address the continuity of their ICT services. Failing to implement adequate ICT continuity controls restrict these municipalities from achieving their strategic goals and, as a result, fulfilling their constitutional mandate of service delivery. It is, therefore, the objective of this study to devise a method, consisting of a theoretical foundation and a supporting tool-set, to assist municipalities in addressing a real-world ICT continuity problem. This method aims to be scalable and usable within different municipalities, and be simplistic and comprehensible enough to implement. The theoretical foundation will introduce the concept of ICT Readiness for Business Continuity, based on the recommendations of international best practices and standards, for example, the ISO 27031 (2011) standard. Furthermore, by considering various challenges within local government, the tool-set will ultimately help municipalities to help themselves in this regard.

The increasing use of the Internet over recent years has forced governments and individuals to utilise Information & Communication Technology (ICT) in the form of electronic government (e-government), more specifically Public Sector Online Services (PSOS) as a subset of egovernment. However, the success of PSOS delivery is dependent on usage and on the growing concerns about the perceived information and service quality of PSOS and their influence on self-efficacy, satisfaction and personal outcome expectation towards ‘continuance intention’ to use the PSOS systems. Retaining current PSOS users is crucial to ensure better utilisation of ICT investments through a regulated process that considers citizens’ personal factors while using PSOS. If the level of PSOS quality is low, citizens are likely to revert to using traditional systems, leaving the new ICT systems underutilised. Few studies have investigated the influences of information and service quality on personal factors, such as self-efficacy, personal outcome expectation and satisfaction, towards intention to continuing to use PSOS. To fill this gap, the present study develops a PSOS quality model by associating it with citizens’ self-efficacy, satisfaction, personal outcome expectation, social influence, prior experience, and continuance intention. Therefore, the purpose of this study is to investigate the salient factors influencing citizens’ intention in the context of PSOS use. A research model of eight constructs is developed by integrating Social Cognitive Theory (SCT), Expectation Confirmation Theory (ECT), the DeLone and McLean IS success model, and E-S-QUAL. To validate the model, a quantitative-positivist approach methodology is used as the research paradigm; it employs a cross-sectional survey design as well as componentbased structural equation modelling (SEM) by using Analysis of Moment Structures (AMOS) as the data analysis technique. In total, 471 self-administrated questionnaires were found usable for data analysis and 17 hypotheses were formulated and tested. Overall, the modelling demonstrates a good fit with the observed data. The findings show that prior experience, social influence, information quality and services quality are significant predictors of citizens’ intention to use PSOS if these latent constructs are regulated through selfefficacy. The results exhibit positive relationships with the other constructs in the model except social influence and information quality towards personal outcome expectation and satisfaction. Further, the results show that service quality is the most influential variable in the present model. This highlights the vital role of service quality while delivering PSOS. Theoretically, the present study extends the roles of pre-adoption and post-adoption by offering a self-regulating process through self-efficacy as a physical ability. Further, the study reveals the importance of personal outcome expectation (internal stimuli) as well as satisfaction (external stimuli) as cognitive factors that represent personal goal assessments. Practically, the current study offers managers a mechanism in how to deal with end-users on a continuance basis while delivering online service through short- and long-term strategies. In summary, the present study marks a significant contribution in better understanding the utilisation of egovernment systems and can serve to better self-regulate outcomes for both citizens and government. Keywords: electronic service, e-service, electronic government, eGovernment, e-government, service quality, information quality, social influence, self-efficacy, personal outcome expectation, satisfaction, continuance intention.

E-government is a term that in the Czech and world dictionary naturalized. Many international institutions and national entities engaged in e-government, prepares the strategy and monitors its development. Despite the advantages that e-government provides to states and cities, there is no comprehensive and standardized approach that would facilitate the preparation of strategies for both international and local levels of government. The local level is increasingly getting into the spotlight. It is close to citizens and therefore knows their needs. Citizens also come into contact with local levels of government more often. This is the main reason why consider local e-government. Its implementation needs many resources, projects are often implemented in the long term, and therefore the e-government should be approached systematically. This systematic way to make municipal e-government is represented by a local strategy, which is described in this thesis. The goal is to design the structure and content of local e-government strategy for basic local government units, including the process of its creation, and verification of the theoretical findings on example of the village Sudoměřice The main benefits of the work can be seen in the general definition of local e-government strategy, its structure, process and inputs required for its formation. A secondary benefit is the creation of local e-government strategy for the village Sudoměřice, which should verify that the process and structure can be applied to small and medium-sized municipalities.

Thesis (M.P.A.)--Kutztown University of Pennsylvania, 2002.<br>Source: Masters Abstracts International, Volume: 45-06, page: 2931. Typescript. Abstract precedes thesis as preliminary leaf. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 72-76).

Information Communication Technology (ICT) has become an integral part of conducting business within enterprises including the local government. Local government relies on the use of ICT to ensure that its objectives and goals are accomplished. The effective use of ICT within the context of local government is fundamental for the support, sustainability and growth of municipalities. Benefits associated with the effective use of ICT in local government include but are not limited to accelerated service delivery, efficiency and accountability. While these benefits cannot be disputed, it is important to realise that the use of ICT presents potential risks. Thus, good governance of ICT should be addressed in local government. However, in recent years, the Auditor-General of South Africa (AG) has identified lack of good governance of ICT in local government. Various issues have been identified as emanating from the lack of good governance of ICT and lack of adequate ICT risk assessment is a case in point. In an attempt to address the good governance of ICT local government, various documents have been formulated. However, none of these address how effective management of ICT risks can be achieved. As such, local government lacks the means to effectively address the management of ICT risk which is core to the good governance of ICT. Local government still requires urgent intervention with regard to addressing the activities of managing ICT risks, particularly ICT risk assessment. Moreover, it was revealed that the lack of adequate ICT skills and financial resources in local government elevates this problem. The above-mentioned problem is what has motivated this research study. This dissertation aims to produce an artefact in the form of an approach for ICT risk assessment in local government. It is believed that a customised approach to ICT risk assessment in local government will contribute towards solving the identified problem.

Thesis (MPA (School of Public Management and Planning))--University of Stellenbosch, 2009.<br>m-Government or mobile-Government is seen as part of e-Government and an additional channel for the delivery of public services and information to the citizen. This study critically examines and evaluates the extent to which the Provincial Government Western Cape has adopted m-Government and implemented related services. A survey conducted by Kirsten (2006) on the adoption and readiness of mobile technology by businesses in South Africa was used as the foundation of this study to determine the level of readiness in the Provincial Government Western Cape. Managers and technical staff within the Province’s information and communication technology component, the Centre for e-Innovation, were interviewed and asked to complete the survey. The study found that, although there is a relatively high degree of adoption with regard to various aspects of mobile and wireless technology, there are many obstacles and barriers that need to be overcome in order to achieve a higher level of m-Government maturity or readiness. The study makes various suggestions on how to overcome these barriers. The most important suggestion is to develop a holistic approach to the adoption of m-Government. Plans for adoption should be incremental to ensure that small victories that can be built on are achieved; the involvement of key stakeholders is also essential.

<p>This thesis presents an implementation study on the handling of electronic identification in three public authorities in Sweden. Electronic identification is a complex but very topical policy domain, largely tied to the general policy aspirations of e-government development. Theories on policy action, logic of appropriateness, garbage cans, and the dialectics of institutions and technology are used. The result highlights that the policy process of electronic identification in the three studied authorities could not be adequately explained from a traditional policy-implementation dichotomy. The action imperative to develop e-services is very strong and explains why and how electronic identification has been developed within the three authorities. The three authorities have very different institutional capacity to implement e-services with electronic identification. The available technology on electronic identification is inscribed with certain logics of appropriateness, that doesn’t sit equally easy with the administrative logics of appropriateness in all three authorities.</p>

In Japan, electronic government has been developed since the enforcement of the Information Disclosure Act and the formulation of the e-Japan Strategy, both in 2001. Such electronic government produces a number of government information services available all over the world via the Internet, including databases of law texts, congressional minutes and white papers, as well as digital archives. At the same time, electronic government raises several issues of preservation of and "permanent public access" to electronic information, accessibility of electronic government, inclusion of government information into library services, and so forth. The author hopes this presentation will facilitate requests and comments from participants for electronic government and government information services in Japan.

E-government which refers to electronic Government is the process of transformation of relationships of government with its constituents ie the citizens, the businesses and between its own organs, through the use of the tools of Information and Communications Technology (ICT). E-government services are the outcome of e-governance that come as automated services delivered through ICTs particularly Internet based applications that provide access to and delivery of information or services to the public, businesses, other agencies and governmental departments. This study seeks to examine the factors affecting citizens ability to access e-government services in Nkonkobe Municipality in the province of Eastern Cape and come with recommendations of how to address the issue. E-government services should be developed on platforms with the consideration of devices that people can have access to. The study showed that in as much as one can have cell phone that has access to internet , some website services such as home affairs enquiry applications are not accessible on a phone with a general web browser that has no Java Script capacity but has acces to internet. Therefore developing Short Message Service (SMS) based services or Unstructured Supplementary Serviuce Data (USSD) code that is available on all Globile System for Mobile (GSM) cell phones can increase accessibility of most services at a cheaper cost. The study concludes that although e-government is the future for our country and in this era of technology, much still has to be done in areas like Nkonkobe Municipality in Eastern Cape, as the citizens have no or lack appropriate tools to access the internet, and sometimes citizens are not aware of e-government services available. The research indicates that most citizens have cell phones despite the differences in handset capabilities, which therefore means that applications developed for e-government services can be ported foe accessibility to ordinary GSM cell phone including those without internet access.

The purpose of this survey is to describe how selected United States Government agencies provide information to the public via Internet services. With more than 2,000 Federal library and information centers located throughout the world this effort, of necessity, is selective and findings neither represent all libraries nor do they identify all approaches currently used to present information via the Web. An effort has been made to describe services without attributing values to particular site characteristics. This report provides a brief snapshot in time of a complex and rapidly evolving world. While not definitive in scope, it is hoped that this report will provide a baseline for anyone who may wish to revisit some of these sites in the future to determine how services may have been expanded, reduced, or refined.

Within the new constitutional order, South African local government has been afforded specific status and is protected as a distinctive sphere of government in terms of the Constitution Act 108 of 1996. Municipalities are no longer a mere function of national or provincial governments. In addition to this entrenched status, the Constitution and other developmental local government legislation vests local government with specific functions and responsibilities as part of the process of building a new democracy and promoting socio-economic development and upliftment. Consequently, local government managers are under constant pressure to improve the performance and quality of service delivery. They are expected to satisfy a number of stakeholders, achieve increases in efficiency, as well as attain developmental service delivery goals as contained in their Integrated Development Plan (IDP). Quality management standards and excellence models in support of the total quality management (TQM) philosophy are relatively new public management approaches that changes traditional organisational decision-making practices to deliver services to its customers in more effective and efficient ways. In essence, quality management standards and excellence models are performance management methodological practices, techniques and tools designed to meet and exceed public requirements. It accomplishes this through determining what constitutes excellence in customer service, and then empowering employees to a never-ending search for quality improvement in the delivery of services, in terms of the continuous improvement and continuous process improvement philosophies, of which total quality management (TQM) is premised on. Consequently, quality management standards and excellence models (such as the ISO 9001: 2008 QMS, ISO 14001: 2004 EMS, EFQM and SAEF Excellence Models) as methodological practices, techniques or tools in support of the critical factors (CFs) of the total quality management (TQM) philosophy, namely: (1) customer-based approach, (2) senior management commitment and leadership, (3) quality planning, (4) management based on facts, (5) continuous improvement, (6) involvement of all members of the organisation, (7) education and training, (8) teamwork, (9) communication systems, (10) learning, (11) process management, (12) co-operation with suppliers, and (13) organisational awareness and concern for the social and environmental context, can provide a framework by which to achieve the goals of effective and efficient service delivery in developmental local government, as they foster a culture of performance and accountability. Local government managers could use these quality and excellence methodological practices, techniques and tools, as a starting point to improve efficiencies in their municipalities, as the programmes afford them an opportunity to systematically evaluate the municipality and determine what leads to organisational success and deliverables. Institutional theory suggests that organisations are both influenced by and can influence the society in which they operate. Institutional theorists believe that the motivation for a change in internal practices might not only be performance related, but may primarily be to enhance or maintain the legitimacy of the respective institution. Institutional theory also focuses on the social contract that exists between the institution and society. This social contract is believed to represent the expectations of society. From an institutional point of view, it has been suggested that institutions may change and adopt the norms of society to appear legitimate to that society. This infers that when societal norms and values change, institutions will be expected to change. These societal pressures combined with legislative changes, require institutional entrepreneurs to respond to these isomorphic pressures, and will work to preserve the institution's legitimacy by incorporating, or at least appearing to incorporate, new practices, norms and values. The aim of this research study was to analyse within an institutional theory framework, the implementation of quality management standards and excellence models in support of the total quality management (TQM) philosophy and developmental local government within two South African municipalities. The research investigation has been undertaken within the social constructionist paradigm and using the case study method. Interviews and documents were the data sources and thematic analysis was used as a tool to analyse the data by applying a theory-driven coding procedure. The findings from the two research sites, namely Makana Municipality in Grahamstown and Drakenstein Municipality in Paarl reveal that the implementation of quality management standards and excellence models in support of the total quality management (TQM) philosophy in both municipalities was not a smooth process and there were many challenges such as political instability, lack of commitment on the part of the senior leadership and management, staff and skills shortages, resistance by staff to implementation and resource constraints. Institutional theory has proved to be useful in understanding why the Makana and Drakenstein Municipalities implemented quality management standards and excellence models. Because of coercive, mimetic and normative isomorphic pressures affecting the Makana and Drakenstein municipalities, change was imperative if these institutions were to remain relevant and legitimate in order to address its service delivery mandate of effectiveness and efficiency. Institutional theory provided a theoretical lens to understand and appreciate the pressures that affected the municipalities because of its new developmental mandate as encapsulated in new municipal legislation. It also assisted in understanding how institutional entrepreneurs responded to these pressures to conform. The implementation of quality management standards and excellence models in the Makana and Drakenstein municipalities was adversely affected by volatility amongst the political leadership of both municipalities. The successful implementation of these standards and models would require collective action from the political, bureaucratic and procedural entrepreneurs in order to enhance effective, efficient and accountable service delivery. However, in both the Makana and Drakenstein municipalities, institutional entrepreneurs, namely councillors and officials were not working together as a collective to implement quality management standards and excellence models. Evidence has shown that the absence of stable political leadership and noncooperation and collaboration amongst institutional entrepreneurs contributed significantly to the non-institutionalisation of quality management standards and excellence models in these Municipalities. This implies that legitimacy has not been achieved, due to institutional entrepreneurs not collaborating and collectively working with each other to implement the quality management standards and excellence models. Thus, this research study suggests that the strategic and collective role of the political and administrative leadership as institutional entrepreneurs is critical if the municipality is to achieve its aims and objectives, namely effective, efficient, and accountable service delivery in developmental local government. Recommendations in respect of future research and to practitioners have also been offered.

The continued advances in service-oriented computing and global communications have created a strong technology push for online information sharing and business transactions among enterprises, organizations and individuals. While these communities offer enormous opportunities, they also present potential threats due to a lack of trust. Reputation systems provide a way for building trust through social control by harnessing the community knowledge in the form of feedback. Although feedback-based reputation systems help community participants decide who to trust and encourage trustworthy behavior, they also introduce vulnerabilities due to potential manipulations by dishonest or malicious players. Therefore, building an effective and resilient reputation system remains a big challenge for the wide deployment of service-oriented computing. This dissertation proposes a decentralized reputation based trust supporting framework called PeerTrust, focusing on models and techniques for resilient reputation management against feedback aggregation related vulnerabilities, especially feedback sparsity with potential feedback manipulation, feedback oscillation, and loss of feedback privacy. This dissertation research has made three unique contributions for building a resilient decentralized reputation system. First, we develop a core reputation model with important trust parameters and a coherent trust metric for quantifying and comparing the trustworthiness of participants. We develop decentralized strategies for implementing the trust model in an efficient and secure manner. Second, we develop techniques countering potential vulnerabilities associated with feedback aggregation, including a similarity inference scheme to counter feedback sparsity with potential feedback manipulations, and a novel metric based on Proportional, Integral, and Derivative (PID) model to handle strategic oscillating behavior of participants. Third but not the least, we develop privacy-conscious trust management models and techniques to address the loss of feedback privacy. We develop a set of novel probabilistic decentralized privacy-preserving computation protocols for important primitive operations. We show how feedback aggregation can be divided into individual steps that utilize above primitive protocols through an example reputation algorithm based on kNN classification. We perform experimental evaluations for each of the schemes we proposed and show the feasibility, effectiveness, and cost of our approach. The PeerTrust framework presents an important step forward with respect to developing attack-resilient reputation trust systems.

Magistro darbe nagrinėjamos Lietuvos universitetų žiniatinkliuose teikiamos elektroninės viešosios paslaugos, apžvelgiama jų teikimo situacija, plėtros tendencijos. Darbe, naudojant empirinius (analizė, palyginimas, apibendrinimas) socialinių tyrimų metodus, analizuojamos elektroninių viešųjų paslaugų atsiradimo ir vystymosi tendencijos, jų plėtra. Elektroninės viešosios paslaugos, jų teikimas šiuolaikinėje visuomenėje yra neatskiriama švietimo sistemos dalis.<br>Electronics public services, provided in the networks of Lithuanian universities are analysed in the Master’s degree work; the situation of availability of public e-services as well as the tendencies for development are reviewed. Public electronic services, their provision for the contemporary society is very important phenomenon in the educational system as well.

Thesis (MPhil)--Stellenbosch University, 2011.<br>ENGLISH ABSTRACT: The aim of this research report is to identify the alternative service delivery models that could deliver effective and efficient services to the South African public in future. The current economic realities, the effects of globalisation, the potential for technological innovation and the public‟s demand for better services have led the South African government to reconsider the manner in which services are being rendered. A futures methodology tool that was employed in understanding the environment in which services are delivered in South Africa is the environmental scanning. Environmental scanning which took the form of literature review, analysis of statistics already produced by other researchers, official publications and correspondence, newspaper surveys, pamphlets and newsletters, dissertations and theses as well as information from the internet will be employed in this study. Constructive environmental scanning which encompasses both material monism (also known as pop-ism) and the transcendental monism (Naude.2008; 53) was employed to develop a sound understanding of the environment (factors and forces) which have a bearing on the futures of the public service delivery. This exercise revealed that in South Africa services delivery is influenced by the following driving forces (environments): cultural and social, political and legislative, technological and economic. The environmental scanning also revealed that due to the importance attached to service delivery; government had to move away from the conventional approaches to public service delivery where government was the sole provider of services to the public and sought alternative ways of delivering services to the public. The following alternative service delivery models were adopted by government: contracting out, concession, leasing, privatization, management contract, and Electronic government as alternative models of service delivery. Notwithstanding the success of most of the models, some of these proved to be a breeding ground for nepotism, corruption, fraud and a paradise for white collar criminals. Political interference, that masquerades as political oversight is the order of the day. All of these are taking place at the expense of services delivery and are costing the government dearly. Government viewed this as an unhealthy state of affairs and also realised that this situation cannot be left to perpetuate into the future. Most importantly, government has awoken to the reality that the future can no longer be left to chance. Scenario planning was adopted as the research methodology employed in anticipating and preparing for the future. In the quest for v seeking alternative service delivery models for the future, the research report adopted the six stages of scenario planning. The chief value of scenario planning is that it allows policy-makers to make and learn from mistakes without risking career-limiting failures in real life. Further, policymakers can make these mistakes in a safe, unthreatening, game-like environment, while responding to a wide variety of concretely-presented situations based on facts. Scenario planning has an added benefit of allowing participants the latitude to think freely, allows creativity and encourages innovation.

As more and more governments have embarked on the e-government path, providing digital interaction with its citizens has boosted the demand for trusted electronic identity solutions that can ensure an official match between an online identity and a physical one. Along with this trend, the affordability and diffusion of mobile devices has translated into a strong push for governments to diversify e-ID channels by developing digital identification on mobile devices also known as Mobile e-ID. Mobile e-ID offers citizens legally binding identification, authentication and qualified electronic signatures and it has been already successfully implemented by some countries at a nation-wide scale. Extant research has investigated mobile e-ID from a technical oriented perspective focusing on potential deployment models, however little is known about the challenges a country is facing in making mID adopted by a wider number of users/ citizens. Addressing this, I run a case study on Republic of Moldova’s nationwide mobile e-ID solution to investigate the barriers to Mobile e-ID. Accordingly, I identify 18 barriers which are organised into 5 categories.

eFörvaltning ses som ett medel för att göra kommunalt förvaltningsarbete mer effektivt och interoperabelt. Dock begränsas kommuner av oförmåga att uppnå det vilket försvårar genomförandet av deras uppdrag. En orsak till varför införandet av eFörvaltning inte ger de systematiska fördelar som efterfrågas beror på att införandet av informations och kommunikations teknologier (IKT) inte är tillräckligt. Förändringen som krävs kan inte ske över en natt utan är en gradvis förändring över tid som även kräver nya sätt att arbeta på. Kommuner behöver hantera sin eFörvaltningsutveckling på ett mer strukturerat sätt för att öka möjligheterna att förverkliga de fördelarna som sägs kunna erhållas. Enterprise Architecture (EA) har på senare tid kommit att ses som en möjlig lösning för att komma tillrätta med denna problematik. Genom att arbeta mot en EA skapas möjligheten att brygga IKT system med affärsprocesser och därigenom leda till effektivitet och interoperabilitet. Dock är EA inom offentlig sektor ifrågasatt. Forskare menar att EA saknar tydlig definierad omfattning och begreppsvärld, vilket gör användningen av EA inom förvaltningsarbete svår. De omfattande logiska EA ramverk som finns idag saknar innehåll som är specifikt relaterade till offentlig sektor. Vari det blir problematiskt att arbeta mot en EA inom offentlig sektor. Denna licentiatavhandling lägger följande forskningsfråga: ”Vilken roll har EA för införandet av eFörvaltning inom Svenska kommuner?” Samt följande underfrågor ”Vilka förutsättningar finns för att använda EA vid eFörvaltningsutveckling?” ”Vad har Örebro kommun uppnått genom att arbete mot en EA i deras eFörvaltningsutveckling?” Och ”Vilka problem har Örebro kommun upplevt av att arbeta mot en EA vid eFörvaltningsutvecklingen?”. En longitudinell fallstudie av ett eFörvaltningsutvecklingsprojekt i Örebrokommun genomfördes mellan 2007 och 2009 med syfte att utröna dessa frågor och för att skapa insikt om EAs roll för eFörvaltningsutveckling. Förutsättningar, resultat och upplevda problem vid eFörvaltningsutvecklingen studerades. I anslutning till detta empiriska arbete genomfördes även en jämförandestudie av eFörvaltningsmål såsom de anges i officiella statliga dokument inom så väl Sverige som i EU gentemot förmodade fördelarna med EA som diskuteras i samtida EA-litteratur. Studien visar att EA som fenomen ses som en förutsättning för att lyckas med eFörvaltning. 7 viktiga aspekter gällande förutsättningen för att lyckas med kommuners eFörvaltningsutveckling identifierades: Skillnaden mellan administrativa och politiska ansvaret, Politiskt mandat, Politisk timing, Resursfördelning, Samordning under NPM, Leverantörsberoende, Val av standard och bäst praxis. För att förbättra möjligheten att röna framgång i eFörvaltningsutveckling behöver dessa aspekter aktualiseras och hanteras. New Public Management (NPM) som styrmodell utgör ett strukturellt hinder för eFörvaltningsutveckling som förhindrar en mer explicit användning av EA-ramverk, vilket påverkar möjligheten att uppnå uppsatta mål negativt. Trots den strukturella problematik som föreligger, kan stöd erhållas genom att arbeta utifrån ett ”EA-tänk”. Ett ”EAtänk” kan här ses som ett medel för att påbörja förändringen mot en EA utan att för den delen explicit använda sig av ett EA-ramverk, eller -metod. Dock är det viktigt skapa en förståelse för att ”EA-tänk” som fenomen i sin tur ger upphov till strukturer och således kan leda till problem som även de måste hanteras för att eFörvaltningsutveckling skall lyckas. eFörvaltning, NPM och ett ”EA-tänk” skapar en strukturell triad där olika strukturella egenskaper i vissa fall sammanfaller med varandra vari de kan stödja kommuner i dess arbete och således bidra till positiv utveckling. Medan det i andra fall leder till negativ utveckling där administrationen upplever problem att ta till sig av de rekommendationer eFörvaltningsprojektet kan tänkas ge till organisationen som helhet. Paradoxalt nog skapar denna strukturella triad en situation där kommuner måste arbete runt sig själv för att komma framåt. Normer och befintliga strukturer i kommuner förhindrar effektiv samarbete både internt mellan olika förvaltningar och externt gentemot andra kommuner och landsting vilket leder till fragmentariska framsteg mot projektmålen och i slutänden även kommunens övergripande mål gällande eFörvaltningsutveckling. Givet de i många fall motstridiga strukturella egenskaper som finns mellan NPM och eFörvaltning innebär att det initiala arbetet mot EA i eFörvaltningsutveckling är ett ytterst komplext fenomen. För att öka möjligheten att eFörvaltningsutvecklingen blir lyckad krävs det att kommuner känner till och hantera den negativa inverkan NPM har på eFörvaltningsutveckling. Samtidigt behöver de känna till och hanterar problematiken som uppstår av att arbeta mot en EA genom ett ”EA-tänk”, Samt att som studien visat, EA ger inget stöd för mer politiseras mål, vari kommuner behöver annat sätt och andra strategier för sådant arbete. Detta är viktigt att beakta, speciellt med tanke på att mer politiserade mål i mångt och mycket är de mål som kommer premieras av politiker. Av just den enkla orsaken att politiker inte blir omvalda på grund av “effektiva IKT integrerade interna processer” utan blir omvalda utifrån förbättringar som är synliga och som gagnar medborgare positivt. Avhandlingen bidrar till forsknings genom att öka förståelse för och behovet av att hantera både positiva och negativa faktorer som påverkar möjligheten att lyckas med eFörvaltningsutveckling inom kommunalt arbete. Vilket inkluderar de 7 identifierade kritiska faktorer måste aktualiseras och hanteras för att öka möjligheten att lyckas. Den negativa effekt NPM har på eFörvaltningsutveckling och hur ett ”EA-tänk” kan leda till positiv utveckling, även om det som denna studie visat inte kan bidra till mer politiserade mål. Vad gäller denna licentiatavhandlings bidrag till praktiken så bidrar den med att belysa den problematiska situation som föreligger av att institutionaliserade strukturer i många fall verkar som ett hinder mot förändring. Studien möjliggör även till att kommuner kan skapa en förståelse för sin egna eFörvaltningsutveckling och möjligtvis kan verka för att inte uppleva samma problematik som identifierats i Örebros eFörvaltningsutveckling samt visa på hur en kommun kan arbeta för att hantera den problematik som inte kan förhindras alternativ som uppstår trots denna kunskap.<br>Governments struggle with inefficiencies and an inability to achieve interoperable information communication technology (ICT) systems. Apparent issues include a failure of local government to realize the benefits of electronic government (eGov) initiatives, high project failure rates, administrations hampered with inefficiencies, and a lack of interoperability between systems within the local government. Thus, local governments need to address their eGov initiatives in a structured way to improve their chances of providing the benefits that are sought after. Sweden’s eGov model is decentralized, following a strict new public management (NPM) model. Whilst eGov ought to bring benefits to local government, Sweden is still hampered by inefficiencies and an inability to achieve interoperable ICT systems. This has been the case for quite some time. One reason why systemic gains from adopting eGov have not reached the levels sought after could be that, in many cases, ICT implementations are not enough. The transformation needed for eGov is not instantaneous; it requires various new ways of working. Enterprise Architecture (EA) has come to be seen as a possible solution to the apparent issues of developing, adopting and managing eGov successfully. By utilizing EA, it is argued that it is possible to bridge ICT systems and business processes, thus making the organization more efficient. However EA’s usefulness for eGov development and adoption is the subject of debate. Some researchers argue that EA lacks clearly defined scopes and concepts, which makes the use of EA in government difficult. Whereas other argues that although EA frameworks are comprehensive logical frameworks, they lack content that is related specifically to government organizations. The thesis posits the following research questions: What is the role of EA in eGov adoption in Swedish local government? together with three sub questions: What are the prerequisites for using EA in Swedish local eGov adoption? What has the Swedish local government in Örebro achieved with its use of EA in eGov adoption? And What problems have the Swedish local government in Örebro experienced in its use of EA when adopting eGov? To explore the role of EA in eGov adoption a longitudinal case study is carried out on the municipality of Örebro’s eGov project MovIT, a project launched in 2007 that ended in 2009. I study the prerequisites, results and problems associated with using EA in Swedish local government as part of eGov adoption. A comparative study is conducted of the goals of eGov, as stated in official eGov documents at EU and Swedish governmental levels will attest as to the supposed benefits of EA in contemporary EA-literature. From the study, it can be concluded that EA, as a phenomenon, is thought to be, if not a silverbullet, then at least a prerequisite to eGov success. In term of prerequisites, EA use cannot assist Swedish local government where there are more politicized objectives; in this situation, local government is required to look elsewhere to find support for its work. The study identify several critical issues from the empirical study of the prerequisites: distinction between administrative and political responsibilities; political mandate; political timing; resource allocation; coordination under NPM; dependence on providers; and choosing among standards and best practices. These issues need to be acknowledged and handled appropriately by Swedish local government in order to improve the chances for success in eGov adoption. The study also showed that NPM as governance model becomes a hindrance in eGov adoption, preventing the project from a more explicit use of an EA-framework and negatively affecting the projects possibility to adopt eGov. However, despite this structural problem, it is still possible – as observed – for a project that is based on EA-thinking to begin working. EGov, NPM and EA-thinking form a triad, with structural properties that, in some instances, correlate. In such cases, this can lead to positive changes. However, in other situations, they are contradictory, resulting in Swedish local government having a difficult time in adhering to the suggestions endorsed by the eGov project. This lead to incoherent progressions towards requested results. The existing structures hindered effective cooperation, both internally between different departments and externally with other local governments. This licentiate thesis has shown that the initial use of EA in local government eGov adoption is complex. Given the contradictory nature of NPM and eGov, local government has to acknowledge the negative impacts of NPM on eGov adoption. As well as acknowledging the issues that arise from EA use, a key area is a lack of support of local government in an area that is most likely to be endorsed by politicians. Politicians do not get re-elected based on efficient internal processes with a highly integrated ICT; rather, changes must be visible to citizens and businesses. This licentiate thesis has also shown that ‘EA-thinking’, as a means for local government, can move towards an EA without the explicit use of an EA framework or EA method. However, ‘EA-thinking’ may give rise to other issues that need to be acknowledged and dealt with. This licentiate thesis contributes to research by improving our understanding of the nature and importance of promoting and inhibiting different factors. Including critical issues for succeeding with eGov adoption, the negative effects of NPM and how EA-thinking can lead to positive changes, even though it cannot assist local government in all aspects deemed important to eGov adoption. In terms of practice, this thesis contributes by highlighting the problematic nature of institutionalized structures and the effect that this has on eGov adoption. It also contributes by enabling local governments to acknowledge the problems identified. This allows them to better understand their own development and possibly avoid similar problems or at least have a better understanding of how to handle the issues that arise.

Theses deal with opportunities of e-government, possible changes in the society after implementation of e-government projects, provision of high level electronic public services (EPS) which are recommended by the EU program documents. They also analyse supply and demand of e-government services in the society, level of society satisfaction by e-government services, influence of e-government to the sphere of rapidly developing and improving technologies. Theses present and analyse samples of e-government services of foreign countries which enable to assess shortcomings of services, future perspectives of other countries. Theses analyse e-government situation in Lithuania.

This thesis critically examines the nature and purpose of the MobiSAM partnership, in relation to its value as a model resonating with normative theories on the role of the media in South African democratic society. The MobiSAM project introduces a mobile polling application, designed for citizens to provide real-time, user-generated data on crucial municipal service delivery such as clean water in Grahamstown, Eastern Cape, South Africa. The project has partnered with the local community newspaper, Grocott's Mail, to broadcast this data, with the aim to facilitate citizen participation in public problem solving and support local government accountability in service delivery. Despite pervasive poverty in areas such as the Eastern Cape, mobile penetration in South Africa is near universal. The MobiSAM partnership is an ongoing effort to forge new links between social accountability monitors, new media, traditional media, citizens and local government around public issues in Grahamstown, in line with the development objectives of the post-apartheid South African state. The overall theoretical framework for this thesis is taken from Christians, Glasser, McQuail, Nordenstreng and White's Normative Theories of the Media, which provides an analysis of four roles of the media in a democratic society, that is: the monitorial, the facilitative, the radical and the collaborative roles. Within each of these roles, the stated journalistic approach is explored, that is investigative journalism, public journalism, radical journalism and development journalism. Public journalism is focused on as having the most resonance with the goals of the MobiSAM partnership. The chosen research design is a critical realist case study with the selected methods of thematic document analysis and, primarily, in-depth interviews with key project participants. The research goals were to analyse this primary data against the normative theory on the role of the media in a democratic society, and the 'real world' constraints posed by the project’s specific political and socioeconomic context. The findings conclude by offering certain recommendations and areas for further research, such as the central importance of a dedicated municipal reporter for covering complex public issues. This critical realist case study, drawing on qualitative interviews with both the accountability monitors and the media practitioners, interrogates the philosophical understandings on the role of the media in this new project, towards an empirical model for advancing substantive socio-economic change through media in South Africa.

Reverse Logistics and Environmental Considerations in Equipment Leasing and Asset Management Manu Sharma 151 Pages Directed by Dr. Jane C. Ammons Today many business enterprises employ capital assets in the form of electronic equipment (e.g., personal computers, workstations and peripherals) in large quantities. As a result of rapid technological progress, these products have a very short life cycle, typically not much more than three or four years. Unfortunately, the disposal of electronic equipment (which contains hazardous materials) presents an environmental problem. In the face of rapid equipment changes, current tax laws and disposal challenges, leasing or procurement contracts with take-back considerations are attractive. For a large electronic equipment leasing company, optimal management of assets supported by good logistics decisions is crucial and may provide a significant competitive advantage. The leasing company tries to maximize operating profits through key decisions associated with the length of leases, efficient utilization of logistics facilities for material flow to and from customer sites, and equipment reuse, refurbishment and disposal actions. In this research, a mixed integer linear programming (MILP) model is developed to facilitate better decisions from the perspective of an electronic equipment leasing company. The model reduces to a linear program (LP) under certain cost assumptions. All computational results are based on the LP version of the model. A case study with representative industry data validates the approach and demonstrates the utility of the model in answering key research questions. Next, important problem uncertainties are identified and prioritized. The effects of these key uncertainties on optimal lease length and product flow decisions are examined in detail via an extended case study. It is also shown how the leasing company can make near-robust leasing decisions in the face of these uncertainties. The computational research results also have implications for policy formulation on electronic waste. The important insights include an understanding of the potential impacts and expected effectiveness of alternative environmental legislation in different geographic areas, and the imposition of negative externalities on other policy realms as a result of this non-uniform approach. Therefore, this research contributes new models and understanding to the intersection of the fields of reverse logistics and equipment replacement, and provides valuable insights to both business asset managers and environmental policy makers.

Tese de Mestrado em Gestão e Políticas Públicas<br>Cabo Verde e Portugal têm uma história que se interliga em vários pontos. Portugal além de ser o país que descobriu e colonizou Cabo Verde é atualmente um dos seus principais parceiros ao nível do desenvolvimento social e económico. Esta colaboração contribuiu para o sucesso de um país que teve como ponto alto a elevação à categoria de País de Desenvolvimento Médio em 2008, segundo a classificação das Nações Unidas. Cabo Verde tem vindo a fazer progressos na última década no domínio do governo eletrónico sempre apoiado por políticas públicas que privilegiam o progresso do mesmo, enquanto Portugal é um país de vanguarda no domínio do governo eletrónico. Os dois países apostam fortemente na implementação do governo eletrónico, cujo sucesso passa pelo bom funcionamento dos serviços públicos on-line disponibilizados pelos Governos e pelas respetivas Administrações Públicas. Para todos os países que usam serviços públicos on-line é relevante fazer, periodicamente, avaliações dos resultados dos mesmos. Os objetivos deste trabalho passam por saber até que ponto Cabo Verde apresenta hoje um pacote de serviços públicos on-line e qual a sua comparação com os serviços equivalente em Portugal.<br>Cape Verde and Portugal histories have several interconnecting aspects. Besides the fact that Portugal discovered and colonized Cape Verde, it is one of its major social and economic partner, contributing to the countries success, that had its recognition as a middle-income country by the United Nations in 2008 as its high achievement. Cape Verde has been making progress in the last decade in the e-government field, always supported by public policies that favor developments on this area, while Portugal is a country in the forefront domain of e-government. Therefore both countries are strongly committed to the establishment of e-government pratices, whose success depends on the proper functioning of the public services made available on-line by the Government and by Public Administration. For all countries that use on-line public services it is important that they be periodically evaluated. The goal of this dissertation is to access Cape Verde´s on-line public services package state of evaluation using Portugal´s as a basis for comparison. During this dissertation we gathered some relevant data related to e-government and information society in both countries. The comparison was conducted based on the methodology used in the benchmarking study for the European Commission which compared on-line public services in the different EU Member States. Tables were created for the following domains: Cape Verde – Citizen; Cape Verde - Companies; Portugal – Citizen; Portugal – Companies; and the indicators of sophistication of each online services were assessed. While gathering this information we noted that the provision of public services online in Cape Verde is still very limited, and that, when compared to Portugal, there is get a loto f work to be done to enhance Cape Verde´s e-governance. Eventually, and following this study could be done another study that demonstrates where Cape Verde can enjoy the experience of Portugal to improve their public services online

Made available in DSpace on 2016-04-04T18:31:32Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Andreiwid Sheffer Correa.pdf: 4501821 bytes, checksum: 3d9f7fecc118ff0dc70b11ea481d5e67 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2012-11-23<br>The unstructured and unplanned implementation of technological solutions leads to wastage of resources and imposes itself as a barrier to achieving the potential benefits of information technologies and communication. The problem increases when managers who operate these technologies are part of the public administration, as structural issues make this scenario open for merely temporary, strictly proprietary, experimental or doomed to obsolescence solutions, resulting in interoperability problems. Thus, the possible damage extrapolates financial issues and compromise expected social return. In an attempt to avoid this problem, several countries are developing and adopting government interoperability frameworks to guide their actions in electronic government. These architectures expose successful solutions for technical, semantic and organizational dimension of interoperability, and reflect on the best path according to the understanding of its government. However, specifically for the technical dimension, there is no way to evaluate the effectiveness of these architectures and assess how the solutions are interoperable. This work aims to propose a maturity model for technical interoperability in order to assess the use of standards and assist software and systems engineers, as well as professionals in general, to focus their efforts on the use of recommended technologies by good practices. It has been based on e-PING architecture, which is the Brazilian standard for interoperability. In addition, this work proposes the development and use of a rule-based system that implements fuzzy logic to assist evaluation and adherence to the model. To verify model feasibility and validate the developed system, this paper also uses a real scenario as the basis of analysis of interoperability.<br>A implementa??o desestruturada e n?o planejada de solu??es tecnol?gicas ? fonte de desperd?cio de recursos e imp?e-se como barreira para obten??o dos potenciais benef?cios do uso das tecnologias da informa??o e comunica??o. O problema acentua-se quando gestores dessas tecnologias atuam para a administra??o p?blica, pois quest?es estruturais fazem com que este cen?rio abra espa?o para solu??es pontuais e transit?rias, estritamente propriet?rias, experimentais ou fadadas ? obsolesc?ncia, o que resulta em problemas de interoperabilidade. Desse modo, os poss?veis danos extrapolam o sentido financeiro por comprometer o retorno social esperado. Na tentativa de contornar essa quest?o, v?rios pa?ses v?m desenvolvendo e adotando as arquiteturas de interoperabilidade governamentais para orientar suas a??es de governo eletr?nico. Essas arquiteturas buscam evidenciar, a partir dos aspectos t?cnicos, sem?nticos ou organizacionais, as solu??es bem sucedidas e aceitas universalmente, al?m de refletirem o melhor caminho para a interoperabilidade, segundo o entendimento de cada governo. No entanto, especificamente para o aspecto t?cnico, n?o existe um meio para avaliar a efetiva utiliza??o dessas arquiteturas e aferir o qu?o interoper?veis as solu??es se encontram. Este trabalho visa propor um modelo de maturidade para interoperabilidade t?cnica com o objetivo de medir o uso de padr?es de interoperabilidade e auxiliar engenheiros de softwares e de sistemas, assim como profissionais em geral, a direcionar seus esfor?os no emprego de tecnologias consagradas pelas boas pr?ticas de mercado. Tem-se, como base para a constru??o do modelo, a arquitetura e-PING, que ? o padr?o brasileiro de interoperabilidade. Adicionalmente, este trabalho prop?e o desenvolvimento e utiliza??o de um sistema baseado em regras que emprega l?gica nebulosa para auxiliar no processo de avalia??o da ader?ncia ao modelo. Para verifica??o da viabilidade do modelo e valida??o do sistema desenvolvido, este trabalho tamb?m utiliza um cen?rio real para servir de base de an?lise da interoperabilidade.

<p>&nbsp<br></p> <p>The Internet is now facilitating the provision of an increasing number of services. Thus, technology has become a more integrated part of people‟s daily routine. Some of these technologies include electronic communication, online banking, and shopping as well as electronic learning - to name but a few. However, for various reasons, such as limited formal education (which is a key promoter of reading and writing skills), access and skills, not everyone has an equal opportunity to benefit from the use of these technologies. The unequal distribution of opportunities of such nature is often broadly referred to as the <i><font size="3" face="Arial,Arial"><font size="3" face="Arial,Arial">digital divide</font></font><font size="3">. That is the gap between those who have access to Information and Communication Technology (ICT) and those who do not. One noted challenge that influences the use of ICT consists of socio-economic conditions, which together elicit high levels of poverty. An identified strategy for uplifting these areas was (and still is) entrepreneurship, notably small businesses. These small businesses however, generally have very short and mostly unsuccessful lives. As a result the government at all levels (national, provincial and local) has endeavoured to provide support to these businesses. Some of this support is provided through mediums, such as the Internet (here named &quot<br>electronic support&quot<br>) to assist these small businesses. This support, which comes from government, is however, not being fully utilised by the intended beneficiaries. Thus, the small businesses are not benefiting from the support provided. Consequently, many are still experiencing a short and unsuccessful existence. This research thus analyses the small businesses in areas of the greater Cape Town, which are characterised by high levels of poverty and unemployment. <font size="3">Previous studies in these areas have reported the lack of ICT related skills, also known as electronic skills (e-skills), as one of the reasons for the low uptake of electronic support (e-support). This e-support is provided by various levels of government through selected agencies (service providers). In essence, this study is aimed at investigating the influence of e-skills in the access and use of the provided e-support by owners of small businesses. Considering that the lack of adequate e-skills has been identified as influencing the use of e-support, the study also aims to identify the e-skills needed to fully utilise the provided e-support. The approach to this investigation included a review of pertinent literature and devising a conceptual model. This model was then tested in the empirical setting of this study. This setting included: (i) Providers of e-support (various specialised government agencies) and (ii) the intended beneficiaries of this e-support, i.e. small businesses in the previously disadvantaged areas (PDAs) of the greater Cape Town. Through the use of case study methodology and face to face interviews, it was found that many small business owners were not able to appropriately use the provided e-support. This was due to their lack of e-skills, which resulted in their inability to use ICT. Additionally, some were unaware of the existence of the e-support or the service providers. During the review of pertinent literature done as part of the study, an e-skills framework was designed. The framework identified the e-skills considered necessary in order for small business owners to effectively utilise the provided e-support and other technologies. The e-skills framework suggested by this study could be used as a tool to assist: (i) The providers of e-support to understand the usage of their services and enable (ii) a more informed understanding of the need for appropriate e-skills among small business owners, in relation to their use of the provided e-support. Additionally, (iii) small business owners should be in a better position to recognise the benefits of using technology, especially the Internet. <font size="3">The contribution of this study is seen as twofold. Firstly, it should assist the providers and users of e-support. This is done by addressing the practical side of the provision and usage of these services. Secondly, the study contributes an informative e-skills framework related to the effective use of e-support. This study also furthers academic knowledge in the area of the investigation, and suggests further directions for research. Considering, the limited small business sample (only participants from three PDAs), the generalisation of this study is limited. This limitation does not however, influence the validity of this research, or the credibility of the findings. </font></font></font></i></p>

Many low-income countries desire to implement and adopt digital government as a springboard for economic and social development but face many challenges. The United Nations identifies that Africa has especially lagged consistently in digital government development and adoption. Most scholars largely attribute the challenges to infrastructure and skills, and often rhetorically cite culture as playing a strong role. This study specifically examined the role of indigenous African culture (‘spirituality’, ‘communalism’ and ‘respect for authority and elders’) and internet access on the adoption of digital government services (e-filing and e-payment of taxes) by Small and Micro Enterprises (SMEs) in Zambia, with the Unified Theory of Acceptance and Use of Technologies (UTAUT) as the underpinning theoretical lens. Data analysis was done using Structural Equation Modelling with principal attention given to the moderating and mediating influence of indigenous African culture. The influence of internet access on the intention to adopt digital government was also examined. The findings from the cross sectional study of 401 tax registered SMEs suggests that ‘spirituality’, ‘African communalism’ and ‘respect for authority and elders’ have significant negative moderating effects on the adoption of e-filing but not on e-payment; and ‘spirituality’, ‘African communalism’ and ‘respect for authority and elders’ are all significant mediators of the intention to adopt both e-filing and e-payment. This means that indigenous African culture plays a significant role in explaining Africa’s position in digital government development and adoption. The findings also showed a negative influence of internet access on the intention to adopt digital government services despite the measures that government has put in place. These results make a novel contribution to Information Systems (IS) theory in identifying a critical yet often overlooked indigenous cultural influence on the adoption of digital innovations in low-income countries. The findings also calls for finding new or adapted IS theories that take into account such unique cultural constructs. The thesis recommends that the research is extended to other low-income countries as well as other contexts that exhibit strong indigenous cultural values.<br>School of Computing<br>Ph. D. (Information Systems)