Development and validation of a framework for e-government readiness measurement

Abstract

This study reports on the design of a framework for measuring e-government readiness. Particular attention is paid to providing a measurement framework that is feasible for municipalities and supports their efforts to utilize e-government for the benefit of the society and the economy. The evaluation of e-government readiness for municipalities can provide a useful barometer to measure the critical needs of citizens. In addition, it can be useful for improving the effectiveness of government services and could assist information communication technology industry to access information for implementing efficient infrastructures to support the delivery of e-services. The model of e-government readiness measurement as reported in this dissertation is based on heterogeneous factors of supporting e-services, individual citizens, technological infrastructure, government and supporting industry. The readiness measurement process utilized data obtained from a survey of 219 government employees from 4 municipalities in Eastern Cape Province of South Africa. The partial least square method was used to determine the relationship between the measured factors. The study results revealed the measurement factors to be significant determinants of municipality e-government readiness with an overall goodness of fit performance of 0.81 and predictive power of 0.68. In addition, a response based segmentation approach of finite mixture partial least squares is applied to uncover unobserved heterogeneity in government employees. The study findings show that the main difference characterising the two uncovered segments of population heterogeneity lies in the internet accessibility using computers. The impact of government readiness and technology readiness on predicting e-government readiness is stronger for the first segment than for the second segment. The segment specific analysis clearly shows that the impact of factors that influence the readiness of e-government can differ vastly, depending on the background of participants. The study findings generally provide a foundation for policymakers and technology practitioners who are interested in propagating e-government readiness awareness across the country. In addition, factors that determine the e-government readiness could provide new insights for future studies on e-municipality service improvement evaluations.