Does External Environment Affect E-Government? A Cross- Country Analysis - Information and Communication Technologies in Public Administration - page 60

3.6 Conclusion .................................................................................................73
Author Biographies .............................................................................................74
References ...........................................................................................................74
Abstract
E-government has made tremendous progress and became a global phe-
nomenon in the past two decades, attracting attention from both research-
ers and practitioners. A growing body of research continues to focus on
explaining the e-government divide and to determine the factors impacting
e-government development. To date, however, few studies have examined
the impact of external environment on e-government development world-
wide; this study intends to fill some of the gaps. With combined data at
country level, we used structural equation modeling statistical techniques
to test the impact of environmental factors (economy, democracy, educa-
tion, Internet usage, and peer pressure) on e-government development and
explored the relationships among these factors. The results indicate that the
overall external environment does affect e-government development at the
national level, with Internet usage, democracy, and education exhibiting
significant influence. Economy can also indirectly impact e-government
by affecting other factors. However, this study did not find any significant
impact of peer pressure on e-government at the national level.
Keywords: external environment, e-government, cross-country analysis
3.1 introduction
3.1.1 Definition of E-Government
There are many definitions of e-government—some are narrow and some are broad.
Narrowly defined, e-government refers to the delivery of information and services
online through the Internet or other digital means (West, 2004). Sakowicz (2004)
also defined it as the use of information and communication technologies (ICTs)
to transform government by making it more accessible, effective, and accountable.
Srivastava and Teo (2007) defined e-government as the use of ICT and the Internet to
enhance the access to and delivery of all facets of government services and operations
for the benefit of citizens, businesses, employees, and other stakeholders. Simply stated,
e-government is the use of technology to enhance the access to and delivery of gov-
ernment services to benefit citizens, business partners, and employees (Silcock, 2001).
These definitions are very similar in that they all mention both the tools and functions
of e-government while highlighting the technologies used to deliver services to public.
Viewing e-government broadly, Sakowicz (2004) argued that e-government can
include all ICT used to support government operations, engage citizens, and provide