Policymakers’ perspective about e-Government success using AHP approach

Challenges of e-government implementation in health sector: a step toward validating a conceptual framework

Purpose

The importance of e-government projects has been realized in the developed as well as in the developing countries of the world. The successful implementation of e-government projects is a challenging task. Public sector organizations are facing different sorts of challenges while executing e-government initiatives. The purpose of this paper is to explore issues/challenges related to e-government project implementation.

Design/methodology/approach

A systematic literature review (SLR) was conducted to understand the challenges of the e-government project, as mentioned in past research. The findings of this SLR helped in developing a proposed framework for e-government challenges. The proposed framework encompasses challenges and issues related to four main aspects such as technological, organizational, project management and enabling environment. These aspects need to be further explained for their remedial measures. For this purpose, an exploratory case study was conducted. The unit of analysis was one of the e-government projects of the ministry of IT. The interviews of the senior and middle management involved in the implementation of this project were conducted and transcribed.

Findings

The case study findings endorse a framework proposed. The findings of this research reflect the importance of creating a shared vision, adequate funding and good project management practices as an essential aspect of e-government implementation. Further, the importance of user-related issues such as involvement, capacity building and technical skills was also found critical in successfully executing and sustaining such initiatives in the organization. Further study findings provide necessary guidance for the senior management, which may help to develop effective strategies for the e-government projects in the organization.

Originality/value

The current study focused on developing a better understanding of the challenges commonly faced by organizations during e-government adoption and implementation related to organizational, project management, enabling environment and technological aspects.

Critical success factors for integrating artificial intelligence and robotics

Purpose

This paper aims to enlighten stakeholders about critical success factors (CSFs) in developing intelligent autonomous systems (IASs) by integrating artificial intelligence (AI) with robotics. It suggests a prioritization hierarchy model for building sustainable ecosystem for developing IASs.

Design/methodology/approach

This paper is based on the existing literature and on the opinion of 15 experts. All the experts have minimum of eight years of experience in AI and related technologies. The CSF theory is used as a theoretical lens and total interpretative structure modelling (TISM) is used for the prioritization of CSFs.

Findings

Developing countries like India could leverage IASs and associated technologies for solving different societal problems. Policymakers need to develop basic policies regarding data collection, standardized hardware, skilled manpower, funding and start-up culture that can act as building blocks in undertaking sustainable ecosystem for developing IASs and implementing national AI strategy. Clear-cut regulations need to be in place for the proper functioning of the ecosystem. Any technology that can function properly in India has better chances of working at the global level considering the size of the population.

Research limitations/implications

This paper had all its experts from India only, and that makes the limitation of this paper, as there is a possibility that some of the factors identified may not hold same significance in other countries.

Practical implications

Stakeholders will understand the critical factors that are important in developing sustainable ecosystem for IASs and what should be the possible order of activities corresponding to each CSF.

Originality/value

The paper is the first of its kind that has used the CSF theory and TISM methodology for the identification and prioritization of CSFs in developing IASs. Further, eight significant factors, that is, emerging economy multinational enterprises (EMNEs), governance, utility, manpower, capital, software, data and hardware, have come up as the most important factors in integrating AI with robotics in India.

A data warehouse hybrid design framework using domain ontologies for local good-governance assessment

Purpose

Most local governance assessment tools are entirely or partially based on stakeholders’ surveys, focus groups and benchmarks of different local governments in the world. These tools remain a subjective way of local governance evaluation. To measure the performance of local good-governance using an unbiased assessment technique, the authors have developed a framework to help automate the design process of a data warehouse (DW), which provides local and central decision-makers with factual, measurable and accurate local government data to help assess the performance of local government. The purpose of this paper is to propose the extraction of the DW schema based on a mixed approach that adopts both i* framework for requirements-based representation and domain ontologies for data source representation, to extract the multi-dimensional (MD) elements. The data was collected from various sources and information systems (ISs) deployed in different municipalities.

Design/methodology/approach

The authors present a framework for the design and implementation of a DW for local good-governance assessment. The extraction of facts and dimensions of the DW’s MD schema is done using a hybrid approach, where the extraction of requirement-based DW schema and source-based DW schema are done in parallel followed by the reconciliation of the obtained schemas to obtain the good-governance assessment DW final design.

Findings

The authors developed a novel framework to design and implement a DW for local good-governance assessment. The framework enables the extraction of the DW MD schema by using domain ontologies to help capture semantic artifacts and minimize misconceptions and misunderstandings between different stakeholders. The introduction and use of domain ontologies during the design process serves the generalization and automation purpose of the framework.

Research limitations/implications

The presently conducted research faced two main limitations as follows: the first is the full automation of the design process of the DW and the second, and most important, is access to local government data as it remains limited because of the lack of digitally stored data in municipalities, especially in developing countries in addition to the difficulty of accessing the data because of regulatory aspects and bureaucracy.

Practical implications

The local government environment is among the public administrations most subject to change-adverse cultures and where the authors can face high levels of resistance and significant difficulties during the implementation of decision support systems, despite the commitment/engagement of decision-makers. Access to data sources stored by different ISs might be challenging. While approaching the municipalities for data access, it was done in the framework of a research project within one of the most notorious universities in the country, which gave more credibility and trust to the research team. There is also a need for further testing of the framework to reveal its scalability and performance characteristics.

Originality/value

Compared to other local government assessment ad hoc tools that are partially or entirely based on subjectively collected data, the framework provides a basis for automated design of a comprehensive local government DW using e-government domain ontologies for data source representation coupled with the goal, rationale and business process diagrams for user requirements representations, thus enabling the extraction of the final DW MD schema.

A proposed maturity assessment framework of the Greek local government Web Electronic Services

Purpose

This paper aims to construct an assessment framework to establish a maturity model for Web Electronic Services offered at a local government level and investigate the maturity of Greek municipalities in the E-Government field, trying to correlate how this is affected by demographic variables.

Design/methodology/approach

An original assessment framework regarding municipal Electronic Services was created based on the literature review. The assessment framework was included in a methodological approach supported by the PROMETHEE II method, as well as by selected statistical methods. The framework and the methodological approach were applied in the case of Greek municipalities.

Findings

The analysis revealed the low maturity level of Greek municipalities in Electronic Services sector. The Greek case study indicated that the proposed framework and methodological approach could provide useful insights to municipalities for the improvement of its E-Government Web services based on their strategic preferences.

Research limitations/implications

The assessment took place only in Greece, assessing all the country's municipalities and conducting research only in the municipalities’ websites. The proposed methodology suggests that the PROMETHEE II multi-criteria decision analysis method can support the assessment of the maturity level of local government entities. Moreover, the combination of the PROMETHEE II–empowered assessment framework with demographic statistical analysis can assist orthological decision-making concerning future investments in Web Electronic Services. The methodology could be a good option for future research efforts (assessments) in municipalities, in Greece and worldwide.

Practical implications

The framework is both easy to use and fairly complete. The fact that the assessment was conducted in all the Greek municipalities makes it much more reliable, as it provides the whole picture. The suggested methodology which includes the proposed framework could be used in the cases of municipalities in other countries to assist future actions concerning the investment in Web Electronic Services.

Originality/value

This study provided a medium-size framework, being both complete and easy to use during the evaluation process of all the municipalities in Greece. In addition, the statistical analysis received data from a decision-making tool to execute the clustering (Cluster analysis is usually performed based on the raw data).