Nripendra P Rana

Michael D Williams
email: m.d.williams@swansea.ac.uk

Yogesh K Dwivedi
email: ykdwivedi@gmail.com

Janet Williams
email: jwillia3@glam.ac.uk

Diversity and Diffusion of Theories, Models, and Theoretical Constructs in E-Government Research

Keywords: E-government, Theories, Models, Theoretical Constructs, Methodologies 2 Methodology

After more than a decade of research in the field of e-government, it is now timely and appropriate to reflect upon the overall developmental directions in the area. The purpose of this paper is to explore research progress to date by systematically analysing the existing body of knowledge on egovernment related issues. Usable data relating to e-government research currently available were collected from 434 research articles. Based on the investigation of the various studies, our findings reveal that survey was the most utilised research method, and the Technology Acceptance Model was the most utilised theory to explain research models. Although a large number of theories and theoretical constructs were borrowed from the reference disciplines, their exploitation by e-government researchers appears largely random in approach. The paper also presents limitations and further research directions.

Introduction

E-government is defined as the use of internet to deliver services and information to citizens and businesses [START_REF] Ho | Explaining the adoption of e-government features: A case study of Iowa County treasurers' offices[END_REF][START_REF] Holden | Electronic government at the local level: Progress to date and future issues[END_REF][START_REF] Reddick | A two-stage model of e-government growth: Theories and empirical evidence for U.S. cities[END_REF]. It has been argued that the electronic government research now transitioning to maturity phase and emerging as a multi-and crossdisciplinary research area [START_REF] Scholl | Profiling the EG Research Community and Its Core[END_REF]. Although governments have adopted e-government rapidly, it remains comparatively a new experience. Over the past few years, a small but emerging body of scholarly literature about e-government has begun to come into view [START_REF] Norris | The Scholarly Literature on e-Government: Characterizing a nascent Field[END_REF]. After a few years of rapid growth in the field it would be appropriate to pause and reflect on the state of e-government research [START_REF] Gronlund | State of the art in e-government research: surveying conference publications[END_REF] by means of examining the scholarly literature that has been published in it to date [START_REF] Norris | The Scholarly Literature on e-Government: Characterizing a nascent Field[END_REF]. Despite the potential significant impacts of e-government systems on the public administrations, organizations, individuals, and society, so far, only a few systematic and thorough studies have been undertaken on the subject [START_REF] Gronlund | State of the art in e-government research: surveying conference publications[END_REF][START_REF] Jaeger | The endless wire: Egovernment as global phenomenon[END_REF][START_REF] Kraemer | Information technology and administrative reform: Will the time after e-government be different? Retrieved from[END_REF][START_REF] Norris | The Scholarly Literature on e-Government: Characterizing a nascent Field[END_REF][START_REF] Scholl | Profiling the EG Research Community and Its Core[END_REF]. Andersen and Henriksen [START_REF] Andersen | The First Leg of E-Government Research: Domains and Application Areas 1998-2003[END_REF] conducted an analysis of 110 peer-reviewed journal papers and found that the IS research themes dominates the e-government research body and that interdisciplinary research involving core public administration research along with IS research is yet to emerge [START_REF] Andersen | The First Leg of E-Government Research: Domains and Application Areas 1998-2003[END_REF]. Gronlund [START_REF] Gronlund | State of the art in e-government research: surveying conference publications[END_REF] analysed a large number of papers from DEXA, HICSS, and ECEG conferences to conclude that the publications in the conferences need to address quality criteria such as rigor and relevance in order to develop eGov into a mature research field. Yildiz [START_REF] Yildiz | E-Government research: reviewing the literature, limitations, and ways forward[END_REF] randomly reviewed the limitations of the published eGov research. In line with previous studies, Scholl [START_REF] Scholl | Profiling the EG Research Community and Its Core[END_REF] analysed a sample of publications from e-government and public administration conferences and journals in order to describe the profile of the core researcher community. Although these studies provided the systematic reviews of research issues, topics and research community, none of them have explored a systematic use of theories, models and theoretical constructs.

A number of previous studies [START_REF] Andersen | The First Leg of E-Government Research: Domains and Application Areas 1998-2003[END_REF][START_REF] Heeks | Analysing e-government research: Perspectives, philosophies, theories, methods, and practice[END_REF][START_REF] Yildiz | E-Government research: reviewing the literature, limitations, and ways forward[END_REF] have previously argued that the majority of published research in this area are weak in methodological and theoretical rigour and sometime less relevant to the practice. However, these arguments are yet to be supported by observation from the analysis of existing literature. Given the importance, complexity and existing gap in the topic area, and the lack of the published comprehensive review of the e-government adoption literature [START_REF] Titah | E-government adoption and acceptance: A literature review[END_REF], the aim of this paper is to present a comprehensive retrospections of the previous egovernment research studies that have taken place in terms of diversity and diffusion of theories, models, and methodologies utilised to examine issues related to egovernment adoption and diffusion in both from individual and organizational perspectives. and constructs to analyse the various electronic government applications of different countries. The focus was also for those articles which have used the existing theories, models, and frameworks to discuss the e-government developments and issues. It was visualized that a total of 112 articles used the different theoretical constructs to discuss the overall e-government scenarios. It was also noticed that 70 studies used various theories, models, or frameworks either in their original structure or in the altered form to base their research models.

We collected overall 363 independent and 158 dependent variables from the studies which used variables and constructs to represent their research. After further scanning of these variables 177 independent and 110 dependent variables were subjected to further analysis. These independent and dependent variables were then categorized into four different groups such as environmental, individual, innovation, and organizational characteristics [START_REF] Jeyaraj | A review of the predictors, linkages, and biases in IT innovation adoption research[END_REF].

Findings

Table 1 shows the list of those theories or models which have been used either in its partial or complete form to represent the specific e-government research model along with the corresponding methodologies utilised for those studies. In course of screening all the research studies it was found that 70 of them used the existing models or theories to represent their cases. Analysing such models it was also noticed that TAM was the highly utilized model (25 studies) for examining the issues related with electronic government adoption. This is followed by Information System Success Model (11 studies) [START_REF] Delone | Information systems success: The quest for the dependent variable[END_REF] [START_REF] Delone | The DeLone and McLean Model of information systems success: A ten year update[END_REF], diffusion of innovation (DOI) (11 studies), unified theory of acceptance and use of technology (UTAUT) [START_REF] Venkatesh | User acceptance of information technology: Toward a unified view[END_REF] (9 studies), theory of planned behavior (TPB) (8 studies), extended technology acceptance model (TAM2) (4 studies), theory of reasoned action (TRA), structuration theory, and trust model (3 studies each) as some of the frequently utilised models and theories for representing the electronic government research models. While analysing the 70 research studies, it was also marked that 90% (N=63) of research studies based on any one of 29 existing research models or theories were published in or after the year 2006 whereas only 10% (N=7) got published on or before the year 2005. As far as the methodologies for these theories and models are concerned, most of them used survey (N=61) as their methodology whereas a very few theories (N=9) have used the other methodologies such as secondary data analysis, case studies, descriptive approach, and literature review and synthesis to represent their cases. Out of total 29 theories and models being employed to represent the models of 70 studies, two theories were used purely for case studies (Governance Theory, and Intermediation Theory), whereas three of them used only for descriptive approaches (Grounded Theory, Dynamic Info-Inclusion Theory, and Complexity Theory).

Moreover, out of 70 studies which used existing theories and models as the foundation for explaining their research models or frameworks, 20 used more than one theory or model. Five studies [START_REF] Fu | Acceptance of electronic tax filing: A study of taxpayer intentions[END_REF][START_REF] Gumussoy | Understanding factors affecting e-reverse auction use: An integrative approach[END_REF][START_REF] Horst | Perceived usefulness, personal experiences, risk perception and trust as determinants of adoption of e-government services in The Netherlands[END_REF][START_REF] Lu | An empirical study of on-line tax filing acceptance model: Integrating TAM and TPB[END_REF][START_REF] Ojha | Antecedents of paperless income tax filing by young professionals in India: an exploratory study[END_REF] used TAM and TPB together, four of them [START_REF] Carter | The utilization of e-government services: citizen trust, innovation and acceptance factors[END_REF][START_REF] Gumussoy | Understanding factors affecting e-reverse auction use: An integrative approach[END_REF][START_REF] Lean | Factors influencing intention to use egovernment services among citizens in Malaysia[END_REF][START_REF] Shareef | Identifying critical factors for adoption of e-government[END_REF] used even three theories or models, whereas three [START_REF] Hu | Determinants of Service Quality and Continuance Intention of Online Services: The Case of eTax[END_REF][START_REF] Sambasivan | User acceptance of a G2B system: a case of electronic procurement system in Malaysia[END_REF][START_REF] Segovia | Paralingual Web Design and Trust in E-Government[END_REF] used TAM and DeLone and McLean's [START_REF] Delone | The DeLone and McLean Model of information systems success: A ten year update[END_REF] IS success model together to propose and test their research models. One study [START_REF] Tang | Examining the impact of possible antecedents on service usage: an empirical study on Macao e-government[END_REF] used TAM and TRA together however, other few studies have used two similar models to explain the resulting research, such as Sang et al. [START_REF] Sang | E-government adoption in ASEAN: the case of Cambodia[END_REF] used TAM and TAM2, Floropoulos et al. [START_REF] Floropoulos | Measuring the success of the Greek Taxation Information System[END_REF] used two success models: DeLone and McLean's [START_REF] Delone | Information systems success: The quest for the dependent variable[END_REF] updated IS success model, and Seddon's [START_REF] Seddon | A respecification and extension of the DeLone and McLean model of IS success[END_REF] IS success sub-model, and Parvez [START_REF] Parvez | Examining e-democracy through a double structuration loop[END_REF] based his model on Gidden's structuration theory, and Orlikowski's structurational model of technology (SMT). Survey: [START_REF] Carter | The utilization of e-government services: citizen trust, innovation and acceptance factors[END_REF], [START_REF] Carter | E-government diffusion: a comparison of adoption constructs[END_REF], [START_REF] Chiang | Trust and security in the e-voting system[END_REF], [START_REF] Colesca | Adoption and use of e-government services: The case of Romania[END_REF], [START_REF] Dimitrova | Profiling the adopters of e-government information and services -The influence of psychological characteristics, civic mindedness, and information channels[END_REF], [START_REF] Fu | Acceptance of electronic tax filing: A study of taxpayer intentions[END_REF], [START_REF] Gumussoy | Understanding factors affecting e-reverse auction use: An integrative approach[END_REF], [START_REF] Horst | Perceived usefulness, personal experiences, risk perception and trust as determinants of adoption of e-government services in The Netherlands[END_REF], [START_REF] Hu | Determinants of Service Quality and Continuance Intention of Online Services: The Case of eTax[END_REF], [START_REF] Lean | Factors influencing intention to use egovernment services among citizens in Malaysia[END_REF], [START_REF] Lee | Task complexity and different decision criteria for online service acceptance: A comparison of two e-government compliance service domains[END_REF], [START_REF] Lu | An empirical study of on-line tax filing acceptance model: Integrating TAM and TPB[END_REF], [START_REF] Ojha | Antecedents of paperless income tax filing by young professionals in India: an exploratory study[END_REF], [START_REF] Phang | Senior citizens' acceptance of information systems: A study in the context of e-government services[END_REF], [START_REF] Sahu | Users' Acceptance of E-Government: A study of Indian central Excise[END_REF], [START_REF] Sambasivan | User acceptance of a G2B system: a case of electronic procurement system in Malaysia[END_REF], [START_REF] Segovia | Paralingual Web Design and Trust in E-Government[END_REF], [START_REF] Shareef | Identifying critical factors for adoption of e-government[END_REF], [START_REF] Seyal | Senior government executives' use of the internet: A Bruneian scenario[END_REF], [START_REF] Tang | Examining the impact of possible antecedents on service usage: an empirical study on Macao e-government[END_REF], [START_REF] Vonk | New technologies stuck in old hierarchies: The diffusion of geo-information technologies in Dutch public organizations[END_REF]; Interview: [START_REF] Vathanophas | Technology acceptance toward egovernment initiative in Royal Thai Navy[END_REF], [START_REF] Vonk | New technologies stuck in old hierarchies: The diffusion of geo-information technologies in Dutch public organizations[END_REF], [START_REF] Wang | The adoption of electronic tax filing systems: an empirical study[END_REF]; Secondary Data Analysis: [START_REF] Hsu | The adoption and implementation of Projects-ABCDE (MOEA) -based on Grounded and TAM theory[END_REF]; Case Study: [START_REF] Sang | E-government adoption in ASEAN: the case of Cambodia[END_REF] Information System Success Model (DeLone and [START_REF] Delone | Information systems success: The quest for the dependent variable[END_REF][START_REF] Delone | The DeLone and McLean Model of information systems success: A ten year update[END_REF] Survey: [START_REF] Floropoulos | Measuring the success of the Greek Taxation Information System[END_REF], [START_REF] Gotoh | Critical factors increasing user satisfaction with e-government services[END_REF], [START_REF] Hsu | Understanding Information Systems Usage Behavior in E-Government: The Role of Context and Perceived Value[END_REF], [START_REF] Hu | Determinants of Service Quality and Continuance Intention of Online Services: The Case of eTax[END_REF], [START_REF] Mirchandani | Perspectives of citizens towards e-government in Thailand and Indonesia: A multigroup analysis[END_REF], [START_REF] Ozkan | Evaluating learning management systems: adoption of hexagonal e-learning assessment model in higher education[END_REF], [START_REF] Prybutok | Evaluating leadership, IT quality, and net benefits in an e-government environment[END_REF], [START_REF] Sambasivan | User acceptance of a G2B system: a case of electronic procurement system in Malaysia[END_REF], [START_REF] Segovia | Paralingual Web Design and Trust in E-Government[END_REF], [START_REF] Teo | Trust and Electronic Government Success: An Empirical Study[END_REF], [START_REF] Wang | Assessing eGovernment systems success: A validation of the DeLone and McLean model of information systems success[END_REF] Diffusion of Innovation/ Diffusion Theory/ Innovation Diffusion Theory Survey: [START_REF] Carter | The utilization of e-government services: citizen trust, innovation and acceptance factors[END_REF], [START_REF] Choudrie | Using diffusion theory to determine the digital divide in e-services: two UK local-area perspectives[END_REF], [START_REF] Dimitrova | Profiling the adopters of e-government information and services -The influence of psychological characteristics, civic mindedness, and information channels[END_REF], [START_REF] Dwivedi | Demographic Influence on UK citizen's e-government adoption[END_REF], [START_REF] Gumussoy | Understanding factors affecting e-reverse auction use: An integrative approach[END_REF], [START_REF] Lean | Factors influencing intention to use egovernment services among citizens in Malaysia[END_REF], [START_REF] Ojha | Antecedents of paperless income tax filing by young professionals in India: an exploratory study[END_REF], [START_REF] Sang | E-government adoption in Cambodia: a partial least squares approach[END_REF], [START_REF] Shareef | Identifying critical factors for adoption of e-government[END_REF], [START_REF] Tung | Adoption of electronic government services among business organizations in Singapore[END_REF]; Case Study: [START_REF] Sang | E-government adoption in ASEAN: the case of Cambodia[END_REF] Unified Theory of Acceptance and Use of Technology (UTAUT) Survey: [START_REF] Carter | Relating Acceptance and Optimism to E-File Adoption[END_REF], [START_REF] Hung | User Acceptance of E-Government Services[END_REF], [START_REF] Loo | User acceptance of Malaysian government multipurpose smartcard applications[END_REF], [START_REF] Sahu | Users' Acceptance of E-Government: A study of Indian central Excise[END_REF], [START_REF] Schaupp | E-file adoption: A study of US taxpayers' intentions[END_REF], [START_REF] Van Dijk | Explaining the acceptance and use of government Internet services: A multivariate analysis of 2006 survey data in the Netherlands[END_REF], [START_REF] Wang | Why do people use information kiosks? A validation of the Unified Theory of Acceptance and Use of Technology[END_REF], [START_REF] Yeow | Acceptability of ATM and Transit Applications Embedded in Multipurpose Smart Identity Card: An Exploratory Study in Malaysia[END_REF]; Theoretical Approach: [START_REF] Belanger | U-government: a framework for the evolution of e-government[END_REF] Theory of Planned Behavior Survey: [START_REF] Chu | Exploring success factors for Taiwan's government electronic tendering system: behavioral perspectives from end users[END_REF], [START_REF] Fu | Acceptance of electronic tax filing: A study of taxpayer intentions[END_REF], [START_REF] Gumussoy | Understanding factors affecting e-reverse auction use: An integrative approach[END_REF], [START_REF] Horst | Perceived usefulness, personal experiences, risk perception and trust as determinants of adoption of e-government services in The Netherlands[END_REF], [START_REF] Hung | Determinants of user acceptance of the e-Government services: The case of online tax filing and payment system[END_REF], [START_REF] Hung | User acceptance of intergovernmental services: An example of electronic document management system[END_REF], [START_REF] Kanat | Exploring citizens' perception of government to citizen services: a model based on theory of planned behaviour (TPB)[END_REF], [ Interview: [START_REF] Parvez | E-Democracy from the Perspective of Local Elected Members[END_REF], [START_REF] Senyucel | Assessing the impact of e-government on providers and users of the IS function: a structuration perspective[END_REF]; Literature Review: [START_REF] Parvez | Examining e-democracy through a double structuration loop[END_REF]; Case Study: [START_REF] Senyucel | Assessing the impact of e-government on providers and users of the IS function: a structuration perspective[END_REF] Other less frequently utilized theory: Decomposed Theory of Planned Behavior-Survey: [START_REF] Lau | How e-government strategies influence e-commerce adoption by SMEs[END_REF], [START_REF] Lau | Strategies to encourage the adoption of G2C e-government services in Hong Kong[END_REF]; IS Success Model [START_REF] Parent | Building citizen trust through e-government[END_REF]-Survey [START_REF] Sun | E-government impacts on effectiveness: a survey study of an eofficial-document system[END_REF]; Resident Decision Model-Questionnaire: [START_REF] Hamner | Enhancing the case for Electronic Government in developing nations: A people-centric study focused in Saudi Arabia[END_REF]; IS Planning and Investment Model-Secondary Dataset, Survey, Interviews: [START_REF] Krell | Competitive advantage from mandatory investments: An empirical study of Australian firms[END_REF]; Social Cognitive Theory: Questionnaire Survey: [START_REF] Loo | User acceptance of Malaysian government multipurpose smartcard applications[END_REF]; Leadership Theory-Case Study, Interviews; Stakeholder Theory-Case Study, Interviews: [START_REF] Luk | The impact of leadership and stakeholders on the success/failure of egovernment service: Using the case study of e-stamping service in Hong Kong[END_REF]; Actor Network Theory-Case Study, Survey: [START_REF] Azad | E-Government institutionalizing practices of a land registration mapping system[END_REF]; Schutzian Theory of Human Agency-Descriptive Approach: [START_REF] Fu-Lai | Uncertainty, human agency and e-government[END_REF]; Dynamic Info-Inclusion Model-Secondary Data Analysis: [START_REF] Joia | Bridging the digital divide: some initiatives in Brazil, Electronic Government[END_REF]; Theory of Connection-Literature Study: [START_REF] Davidrajuh | Planning e-government start-up: a case study on e-Sri Lanka[END_REF]; Grounded Theory-Secondary Data Analysis: [START_REF] Hsu | The adoption and implementation of Projects-ABCDE (MOEA) -based on Grounded and TAM theory[END_REF]; Governance Theory-Case Study: [START_REF] Kolsaker | Reconceptualising e-government as a tool of governance: the UK case[END_REF]; Structurational Model of Technology-Literature Review: [START_REF] Parvez | Examining e-democracy through a double structuration loop[END_REF]; Transaction Cost Analysis-Survey, Questionnaire: [START_REF] Shareef | Identifying critical factors for adoption of e-government[END_REF]; Coordination Theory-Case Study, Interviews: [START_REF] Janssen | E-Government business Models for Public service networks[END_REF]; Institutional Theory-Web-Based Survey: [START_REF] Luna-Reyes | The impact of institutions on inter organizational IT projects in the Mexican federal government[END_REF]; Complexity Theory-Descriptive Approach: [START_REF] Falivene | Reflections and Proposals on Public Officials Training and Promotion of e-Government[END_REF]; Intermediation Theory-Case Studies: [START_REF] Janssen | The Role of Intermediaries in Multi-Channel Service Delivery Strategies[END_REF]; IS Success Sub-Model-Survey: [START_REF] Floropoulos | Measuring the success of the Greek Taxation Information System[END_REF] Table 2 demonstrates a few variables from a list of 177 unique independent variables selected from an overall count of 363 variables used across 112 studies. These unique independent variables are categorized into four different groups such as environmental (23 variables), organizational (91 variables), individual (35 variables), and innovation (28 variables) characteristics as per their traits. Environmental, organizational, individual, and innovation characteristics are the factors that describe the environment, organization, individual, and innovational traits [START_REF] Jeyaraj | A review of the predictors, linkages, and biases in IT innovation adoption research[END_REF] of the underlying variables in the suitable contexts respectively. It was found that organizational characteristics were the most utilised one among the others followed by individual, innovative, and environmental. Amongst four categories, largest (C=11) number of variables among organizational characteristics category were used as independent as well as dependent variables. Similarly, six variables from innovation characteristics, five from individual characteristics, and one from environmental characteristics were used both as independent as well as dependent variables. Analysing all 112 studies that used the theoretical constructs, it was found that only 12 of them were related to pure organizational perspectives. Similar to the independent variables categorization, a list of 110 unique dependent variables gathered from a collection of overall 177 dependent variables from 112 research studies. These variables were also divided into four categories: environmental (11 variables), organizational (52 variables), individual [START_REF] Hamner | Enhancing the case for Electronic Government in developing nations: A people-centric study focused in Saudi Arabia[END_REF], and innovation (22 variables). The most frequently used dependent variables include intention to use (23 studies), perceived usefulness (20 studies), behavioral intention (16 studies), adoption behavior (13 studies each), and trust (8 studies). This trend is similar to the one investigated in a study of IT innovation and adoption research carried out by Jeyaraj et al. [START_REF] Jeyaraj | A review of the predictors, linkages, and biases in IT innovation adoption research[END_REF]. The categorization also revealed ethnic minority, business competitiveness, environmental activism, and e-elections as the environmental characteristics; competitive advantage, net benefits, customer, decision quality, revenue generation, results, and social trust as the organizational characteristics; age, attitude, behavioral intention, satisfaction, and usage as individual characteristics; and efficiency, information quality, service quality, system quality, enacted technology, and perceived usefulness as innovation characteristics to count a few. Due to the space limitation all variables are not listed in Table 2, but interested readers may request them from the authors.

Looking at the theories and models along with the methodologies applied for 70 studies which used the existing models and theories either in original or altered forms to represent the e-government research models, it was found that survey was the most frequently utilized method across various theories and models explored. The striking reason for this may be because of the ease of collecting data based on the existing models would have inspired the researcher to go for survey methodology. The compelling reason for using any other methodologies except survey such as case study, descriptive approach, and secondary data analysis, literature study etc. may be completely based on the qualitative nature of the theories such as governance theory, intermediation theory, grounded theory, dynamic info-inclusion model, theory of connection, and complexity theory applied to represent the suitable research cases.

Investigating the theories and models used by the studies to include different constructs, it was seen that few studies used even three theories or models to propose an integrated model. For example, a study by Carter and Belanger [START_REF] Carter | The utilization of e-government services: citizen trust, innovation and acceptance factors[END_REF] integrated the combination of three models to propose and test their conceptual model. The theoretical models, in particular TAM and DOI, have overlapping constructs. The 'complexity' construct from DOI is similar to the perceived ease of use (PEOU) construct from TAM. Similarly, some researchers have suggested that perceived usefulness and relative advantage are the similar constructs [START_REF] Carter | The utilization of e-government services: citizen trust, innovation and acceptance factors[END_REF]. Carter and Belanger [START_REF] Carter | The utilization of e-government services: citizen trust, innovation and acceptance factors[END_REF] argued that they included both DOI and TAM in the e-government adoption because DOI adds up significant contribution to the prophecy of adoption intent [START_REF] Plouffe | Research report: richness versus parsimony in modeling technology adoption decisions -understanding merchant adoption of a smart card-based payment system[END_REF]. But, combining similar constructs together definitely raises the issue of repeating the similar variables and would make the resulting model less relevant and more repetitive in nature that may likely to add minimal contribution to the existing knowledge. Similarly, Floropoulos et al. [START_REF] Floropoulos | Measuring the success of the Greek Taxation Information System[END_REF] adapted both DeLone and McLean [START_REF] Delone | The DeLone and McLean Model of information systems success: A ten year update[END_REF] updated IS success model, and Seddon's [START_REF] Seddon | A respecification and extension of the DeLone and McLean model of IS success[END_REF] IS success sub-model. This raises a serious question of repetition of constructs as the former model is constituted of the later model.

Examining the unique independent constructs from 112 studies indicated that more than 50% of variables fall under the organizational characteristics even though only 12 out of 112 studies have investigated organizational issues. The major reason for such diverse extent of use of organizational characteristics might be due to certain variables which were although used for employees (considered as individuals), can be more influential to describe the organizational traits than the individual or personal characteristics. The investigation of 10 or higher frequencies for some of the constructs such as perceived ease of use (29 studies), perceived usefulness (24 studies), education (17 studies), age (15 studies), trust (14 studies), gender (13 studies), compatibility (12 studies), subjective norm (12 studies), attitude (11 studies), and self-efficacy (10 studies each) clearly designated that the individual and technology/innovation traits are more frequently examined in the e-government adoption and diffusion research than the organizational characteristics. However, a majority of constructs with organizational characteristics have fewer occurrences across the varied research studies.

The following prominent points can be drawn from findings and discussions of the study:

(1) Technology Acceptance Model (TAM) was the highly recommended model (25 studies) for representing e-government research studies. This is followed by DeLone and McLean's IS Success Model (N=11), Diffusion of Innovation (N=11), Unified Theory of Access and Use of Technology (UTAUT) (N=9), and Theory of Planned Behavior (TPB) (N=8) as some of the most frequently utilised models.

(2) 90% (N=63) of overall research studies (N=70) which are based on any one of 29 existing research models or theories were published in the span of last five years only.

(3) TAM and TAM2 have been used together in some studies even though TAM2 model is the extension of TAM model.

(4) The survey method was used in 87% (N=61) of the total number of studies (N=70).

(5) Although only 12 studies were related to pure organizational perspective, 51% (N=91) of total independent constructs (N=177), and 47% (N=52) of total dependent constructs (N=110) fell under organizational characteristics category.

(6) From a list of variables, 23 (i.e. 11 from organizational, 6 from innovation, 5 from individual, 1 from environmental) constructs were used both as independent as well as dependent variable.

(7) Perceived usefulness, attitude, satisfaction, perceived ease of use, and perceived behavioral control were some of the most frequently utilised independent as well as dependent variables.

Limitations and Future Research Directions

The first limitation of this research is the inaccessibility of a number of relevant studies through researchers' library. The accessibility of such papers would have helped in performing more accurate and in depth analysis. Secondly, this study does not take into consideration the moderating variables. Thirdly, this study concentrates only on the specific aspects of adoption and diffusion for e-government research. Finally, the papers from conferences such as DEXA, HICSS, and ECEG and journal such as Information Polity have not been explored to identify relevant research studies on e-government adoption and diffusion. These limitations of the existing study can be proved to be a step forward toward the future research directions. More papers which could not be accessed should be taken into consideration in the future review of e-government research. The consideration of moderating variables and their explanation may bring in some more interesting facts to correlate and explore along with independent and dependent variables. Also, this study only explored and analysed theories and models related to adoption and diffusion of e-government. However, there might be a number other theories and models (for example, Klievink and Janssen [START_REF] Klievink | Realizing joined-up government -Dynamic capabilities and stage models for transformation[END_REF] examined e-government transformation and evolution using Nolan's stage model) that have used to study other aspects of e-government. Therefore, a further effort is required to explore and identify such theories and relevance in e-government context.

Table 1 .

 1 Model-wise utilised methodologies

	Theory/Model/Framework	Methodology/Source
	Technology Acceptance Model (TAM)

Table 2 .

 2 Independent variables and their final four groupings (Adapted from Jeyaraj et al.[START_REF] Jeyaraj | A review of the predictors, linkages, and biases in IT innovation adoption research[END_REF])

	Categories	Example Independent Variables **
	Environmental Characteristics	Adequacy, Competition, Dominance, E-Commerce,
	The factors that describe the	External Influence, Linguistic Diversity, Persuasion,
	environment	Primary Influence, Social Norms, Web Adoption*
	Organizational Characteristics	Administrative Autonomy, Business Competitiveness*,
	The factors that describe an	Business, Internet Use, Centralization, Clarity,
	organization	Collaboration, Cost, Experience, Employee, Enacted
		Technology*, Facilitating Conditions, IT Leadership*,
		Job Productivity
	Individual Characteristics	Age, Anxiety, Attitude*, Behavioral Intention*,
	The factors that describe an	Commitment*, Education, Effort Expectancy, Empathy,
	individual	Gender, Image, Income, Individual Impact*, Perceived
		Behavioral Control*, Self-Efficacy, Usage
	Innovation Characteristics	Accessibility, Accuracy, Compatibility, Complexity,
	The factors that describe the	Cumbersome, Perceived Ease of Use*, Perceived
	innovation	Knowledge, Perceived Quality, Perceived Usefulness*,
		Relative	Advantage,	Self-actualization,	Service
		Quality*, System Quality*,
	[Legend *: Variables also used as dependent variables; **: Only a few example independent
	variables shown due to space constraints]


Åke Grönlund
email: ake.gronlund@oru.se

Connecting eGovernment to realGovernment -the failure of the UN eParticipation index

Keywords: UN, UNDESA, eGovernment, electronic government, index, eParticipation, Democracy

eGovernment rankings are increasingly important as they guide countries' focus of their efforts. Hence indexes must not just measure features of web sites but also accurately indicate underlying government processes. eGovernment rankings are in a process of maturation in that direction, moving from purely measuring web sites to assessing use and government qualities. One such measurement is the UN eParticipation index, intended to measure how well governments connect to their citizens. This paper analyzes the quality of the index by validating it against other indexes of government-citizen relations qualities, democracy, internet filtering, and transparency. Results: The relation between the index and democracy and participation is non-existent. Countries which are authoritarian or obstruct citizen internet use by filtering can score high on eParticipation by window-dressing their webs. We suggest that the eParticipation index includes an element of reality check and propose ways to do that.

Introduction

eGovernment rankings are increasingly important as they guide countries' focus of their eGov efforts. Therefor it is important that indexes not just measure features of web sites but also accurately indicate the underlying processes. eGovernment rankings are in a process of maturation in that direction. Moving from purely measuring web sites they are moving on to assess use and users, hence aiming to measure government qualities.

There are a number of eGovernment indexes. Some of them have become frequently cited and used as benchmarks, guiding the debate as well as governments' investments in eGovernment. In the EU, regular benchmarking has over the past decade been used to guide the development and gague Europes development [START_REF]The User Challenge: Benchmarking The Supply of Online Public Services. 7th Measurement[END_REF]. In a global perspective, frequently cited indexes include the recurrent UN e-Government rankings 1 , the Economist's e-Government readiness index 2 , and Brown university's regular global e-Government studies 3 . The indexes are different in many ways, and they have changed over time. The UN index was originally quite similar to the EU one, measuring technical sophistication of government online services by means of ladder models starting from information on the web, over interactivity using e.g. online forms to full case handling, including decisions and payments as necessary. While different terms have been, and still are, used for these steps the general idea remains the same. More technical sophistication yields a better score. The Economist's index is much broader and measures "readiness" including not only technical features but also government quality aspects such as government policy, business climate in the country, and social and cultural environmnet factors. Finally, the Brown index still focuses on features of web systems but includes factors that specifically have to do with government qualities pertaining to interaction with citizens, such as the existence of a privacy policy, security policy, advertisements, the opportunity to comment, etc. [START_REF] West | Improving Technology Utilization in Electronic Government around the World[END_REF].

As the result of the maturation of eGovernment services and the use of them, indexes mature. More use yields more data which can be analyzed, so indexes can increasingly include not just the potential of specific online tools but also the effects of them. Also ambitions increase. While automating government processes earlier was at the focus of eGovernment development, the explosive increase in use of social media has increased the requirements on eGovernment services to become "citizencentric", including taking part in decision making, i.e. democratic participation [START_REF]Leveraging E-government at a Time of Financial and Economic Crisis -2010[END_REF]. According to the UN, "e-government should play an ever-greater role in development. Many countries have made tremendous strides in the last two years, due in part to recent, exciting advances in the diffusion of technology. With its responsive, citizencentric qualities, I firmly believe that e-government can make a decisive contribution to the achievement of the MDGs, particularly in developing regions" [3, p iii]. With this ambition, there is clearly a need to make indexes of eGovernment actually reflect not just the "e" but actual government processes, methods, and policies.

To measure citizen-centricness the UN 2010 eGovernment index has been amended by a new set of measurements collectively labeled "eParticipation". This measure follows current research in the field and measures the availability of "polls, surveys, blogs, social networks, newsgroups and other interactive services that facilitate engagement" [3, p 96]. eParticipation is generally taken to be more or less directly related to democracy. This link is explicitly stated in the UN report; the eparticipation index is to "bring some order to measurement of e-governance by positing the relevance of three factors in citizen engagement: electronic information dissemination, electronic consultation and electronic participation in decision-making [3, p.96]. The link is also established empirically by research. For instance, Sanford and Rose [START_REF] Sanford | Characterizing eParticipation[END_REF] found that research on eParticipation has largely concentrated on issues of deliberation and inclusion and is almost exclusively related to participation in the political process.

There are reasons for worry here. The eParticipation field is theoretically and empirically immature. First, the field of eGovernment itself does not have firm theoretical foundations [START_REF] Grönlund | State of the art in e-Gov research: surveying conference publications[END_REF], [START_REF] Grönlund | ICT is not participation is not democracy -eParticipation development models revisited[END_REF], [START_REF] Heeks | Analyzing e-government research: Perspectives, philosophies, theories, methods, and practice[END_REF]. The area of eParticipation is arguably even less theoretically founded. Although the state of eGovernment research has been in focus in a number of literature reviews [START_REF] Medaglia | The challenged identity of a field: The state of the art of eParticipation research[END_REF], contemporary research in the sub-area of eParticipation has only been partially reflected upon. Saebø et al. [START_REF] Saebø | The shape of eParticipation: Characterizing an emerging research field[END_REF] find it "eclectic" with many theories imported from other disciplines and not thoroughly tested as concerns their appropriateness in an eParticipation context.

The field is an integral part of eGovernment research, and it is theoretically focused on democracy models originating from the domain of political science and philosophy [START_REF] Sanford | Characterizing eParticipation[END_REF]. eParticipation has sprung from a field earlier called eDemocracy, but the relation between e-participation and democracy or e-democracy is confused [START_REF] Grönlund | Ten years of e-government: The 'end of history' and new beginning[END_REF]. The role of participation in democracy (both with no e:s) has been discussed for over two hundred years, and it is still contested. There are different democracy models, each attributing participation different roles. Adding the "e" to either or both terms has not made this relation clearer but rather confused it by adding the technology dimension without much discussion of the fact that technology is a mallable medium able to serve many types of participation, including bogus types designed to in fact prohibit real participation [START_REF] Arnstein | A Ladder of Citizen Participation[END_REF]. So far, eParticipation has taken off on a technology track. It has not connected to government in any clear way. This means measurement on eParticipation criteria is potentially dangerous as the models are not validated.

Against this backdrop, the purpose of this paper is to investigate the credibility of the UN eParticipation index as an indicator of the qualities of government it is intended to measure. These qualities are named "citizen-centricness" in the UN reports. Other terms used include "connecting to the citizens" or e-democracy [START_REF]UN E-Government Survey 2008 -From E-Government to Connected Governance[END_REF], but they all explicitly relate to democracy and citizen participation in decision making. We do that by validating it using other, more established measurements of the processes, methods, and policies that eGovernment support, i.e. (real) government operations. We use indexes of democracy, internet filtering, transparency, and social climate; all important qualities of the relation between government and citizens.

Method

The underlying research model used in this paper is that participation requires political ambition (e.g. policy, legislation, methods etc.), technical facilities (here "eParticipation" tools), and a social climate conducive for participation. We showed above that the concept of eParticipation is clearly argued to be based on ideas of democracy. Therefore, this paper tests how well the eParticipation index matches indexes of democracy. The latter are more specifically defined as government policies and practices and a conducive social climate. Specifically, our proposal is that, to be usable as an index of participation in "real government", the eParticipation measure, as a part of the eGovernment definition, must yield results that are in line with indexes of democracy. If not, it measures something else and should not be used for the purpose of measuring the participation aspect of eGovernment.

To investigate this proposal we test the UN eParticipation against three indexes that measure aspects of democracy.

1. The Economist Intelligence Unit's (EIU) democracy index [START_REF]Democracy in retreat[END_REF].

2. The Economist eGovernment index, specifically the "social and cultural environment" factor.

3. The OpenNet measure of internet filtering [START_REF]ONI : The Open Net Initiative[END_REF] These indexes were chosen because they reflect important aspects of democracy. The first represents a holistic, theory-based view of democracy and measures government practices and policies, the second measures the social climate, which is a necessary but not sufficient precondition for democracy, and the third measures government policy and practice specifically for the electronic medium. Together they give a rich picture of participation in practice in each country. We test the relation between each of them and the UN eParticipation index as well as their interrelatedness, e.g. the correlation between index 1 and 2.

Theory: Indexes Measuring Democracy and Participation

The brief literature review above showed that researchers and practitioners agree that eParticipation should reflect democracy and democratic values in the field of electronic services from government. This means the index must not deviate too much from indexes measuring democracy in terms of outcomes. Clearly eParticipation measures items on web sites rather than the direct nature of governments, but it indirectly measures also government processes and the policy guiding these processes. Hence, a good eParticipation measure should not yield outputs which are incompatible with outputs from indexes measuring democracy and government nature.

There are numerous indexes concerning democracy and the nature of government. In this paper we limit our studies to a few which are commonly cited and measure crucial aspects of eGoverment.

1. The Economist Intelligence Unit's (EIU) democracy index [START_REF]Democracy in retreat[END_REF] 2. The Economist eGovernment index 3. The OpenNet measure of internet filtering [START_REF]ONI : The Open Net Initiative[END_REF] A brief look into these indexes show that they together cover important aspecs of democracy and participation, and hence also eParticipation. 1. The Economist Intelligence Unit's Index of Democracy is based on 60 measures grouped into five categories: (1) electoral process and pluralism; (2) civil liberties; (3) the functioning of government; (4) political participation; and (5) political culture. The measures draw on both available statistics and politics analysis. Examples of statistical measures for the category "Participation" include voter participation/turnout for national elections, women in parliament, the extent of political participation, membership of political parties and political nongovernmental organisations, adult literacy, and percentage of population that follows politics in the news media (print, TV or radio) every day.

Examples of measures drawing on polls, analyses etc. include the preparedness of the population to take part in lawful demonstrations, the extent to which the adult population shows an interest in and follows politics in the news, to what extent the authorities make a serious effort to promote political participation, whether ethnic, religious and other minorities have a reasonable degree of autonomy and voice in the political process, and citizens' engagement with politics.

The category indexes are based on the sum of the indicator scores in the category, converted to a 0 to 10 scale. Countries are placed within one of four types of regimes:

 Full democracies (score 8-10)  Flawed democracies (score 6 -7.9)  Hybrid regimes (score 4 to 5.9)  Authoritarian regimes (score below 4)

In all, the index can be described as theory-based and inclusive, drawing on many of the commonly held values and measures of participation. It covers the majority of countries in the world, 167 ones in the 2010 measurement, and is frequently referred to [START_REF]Democracy in retreat[END_REF]. So far there have been three measurements, in 2006, 2008, and 2010.

2. The Economist's e eGovernment readiness index includes six categories which are weighted into the total index as follows; Connectivity and technology infrastructure (20%), business environment (15%), social and cultural environment (15%), legal environment (10%), government policy and vision (15%), consumer and business adoption (25%).

This paper focuses on the overall index and the Social and cultural environment category, for two reasons. First, the overall index is designed to measure "readiness" very broadly, using social, technical, policy, and business indicators. It should hence be a good guide to "participation" in a general sense. The underlying philosophy is that government, business and individuals need to be free to cooperate best possible for both business and government to blossom. Second, the Social and cultural environment is particularly interesting here because it includes several preconditions for participation on part of the individual. The category measures basic education, web-literacy, entrepreneurship, technical skills of workforce, and degree of innovation. These measures together cover many aspects of participation ranging from basic preconditions such as literacy to general ambition to innovate and take action. While not focusing specifically on political participation the category attempts to measure the "innovative climate" in a country.

The OpenNet initiative (ONI)

for measuring Internet filtering involves researchers from the universities of Oxford, Harvard, and Toronto. Internet filtering, censorship of Web content, and online surveillance are reportedly increasing in scale, scope, and sophistication around the world. ONI maintains an index of Internet filtering where countries are profiled based on empirical tests for filtering as well as analysis of policies relating to media, speech, and expression. Legal and regulatory frameworks, including Internet law, the state of Internet access and infrastructure, the level of economic development, and the quality of governance institutions are analyzed as they are central to how countries implement Internet content controls. Together, these analyses are intended to offer "a concise, accurate, and unbiased overview of Internet filtering and content regulation." [START_REF]ONI : The Open Net Initiative[END_REF] Each country is given a score on a five-point scale. The scores measure four themes reflecting the focus of the filtering:

1. Political: Web sites that express views in opposition to those of the current government, as well as content broadly related to human rights, freedom of expression, minority rights, and religious movements. 2. Social: Material related to sexuality, gambling, and illegal drugs and alcohol, as well as other topics that may be socially sensitive or perceived as offensive.

No evidence of filtering. [14]

There is also a measure of the transparency and the consistency of the filtering. Transparency is a qualitative measure based on how openly a country conducts its filtering. Consistency measures the variation in filtering within a country across different Internet Service Providers.

Beyond these technical measures, the ONI country profiles draw on other indexes, which are not directly relevant for the purposes of this study, such as the World Bank governance index and International Telecommunication Union (ITU) statistics on Internet usage.

Results: The UN eParticipation Index Vs. Other Indices of Government Qualities

Testing the UN eParticipation index against the EIU democracy index, Figure 1 shows that there is no relation between them. A high ranking on democracy does not yield a good eParticipation rank. The fact that highly democratic countries do not score well on eParticipation is not necessarily a problem. It could just be that countries have not yet invested in eParticipation. What is worrying is that any country, no matter how undemocratic, can score high on eParticipation. Considering the EIU finding that 32.9 % of the world countries are authoritarian [START_REF]Democracy in retreat[END_REF], it is worrying to see so many countries within this range score just as good as the top ones in the EIU ranking. In fact, the "full democracies", which are the top 15 % of the world countries, do not score significantly better than the authoritarian ones. Table 1 shows that the best 15 countries of the "authoritarian" group at the bottom of the EUI ranking score better than 50 % of the top 15 % EIU ranked "full democracies" in eParticipation. Because the eParticipation index measures items on web sites, the fact that even authoritarian regimes score well can be the result of trivial things. Having an online poll on the web does not mean people actually use it or that it is used to improve services. Moving on to more advanced eParticipation features, such as the use of social software to "engage" people in discussions, to voice opinions, participate in consultations etc., increases this web-reality gap. there is a need for a social climate conducive to participation. Oppressional regimes do not encourage individuals to voice opinions. This is a reason to look to indexes that also measure social factors. The Economist's eGovernment index is one such.

Figure 2 shows that this index is fairly well related to the EIU democracy one as concerns the more democratic countries, but unrelated as concerns the least democratic ones. This means that the Economist's eGovernment index is a better indicator of democracy than the UN eParticipation indes is, even though this was not even the intention of the Economists' index, and even though the correlation is only valid for the top 2/3 of the countries. Put another way, the UN eParticipation index performs worse than even a general eGovernment index not specifically targeting eParticipation.

Fig. 2. Ranks on the EIU democracy index vs the Economist's eGovernment index (both 2010). Lower rank is better This is despite the fact that the UN eParticipation index is in fact included as one item in the Economist's "Policy and Vision" category. To see whether this incorporation has influenced the Economist index to become more correlated with the democracy index we specifically compared those two. Figure 3 shows that there is no such correlation. To test for the conducive social environment we included the "Social and cultural environment" category of the Economist eGovernment index to see if that might be an indicator also of democracy. Figure 4 shows that the correlation is considerably better than for the UN eParticipation index. In fact, it is significant at the .01 level with a Pearson Correlation of .677. 2 also shows that many countries who have gained substantially in scoring due to the introduction of the eParticipation index (1 st vs 2 nd columns) at the same time score very bad on oppressing Internet use by filtering (5 th column. Note that the higher the score the more severe the filtering), and on the general level of transparency (6 th column). These countires are also all authoritarian or "hybrid" regimes in the EIU index (4 th column). It appears strange for an index that purports to value participationexpressly defined as a democratic value -to reward countries for a small number of web site features when the same governments blatantly work against participatory values in the regulation of the very same medium. They do not become more democratic, and should hence not become more "eParticipatory", due to exhibiting web features that cannot be used in practice anyway due to regulation, policy and culture.

Conclusions

Rankings are increasingly important as they guide countries' focus of their eGovernment efforts. Therefor it is important that indexes not just measure features of web sites but also accurately indicate the underlying processes. eGovernment rankings are in a process of maturation in that direction. Moving from purely measuring web sites they are moving on to assess use and users, hence aiming to measure government qualities. One such measurement is the newborn UN eParticipation index. This is intended to measure how well governments connect to their citizens, an important quality aspect of government. This paper analyzes the quality of the index by measuring it against other indexes of government-citizen relations qualities, democracy, social and cultural environment, internet filtering, and transparency. We find that 1. The relation between the UN index and indexes of democracy and participation is non-existent; 2. Even very undemocratic countries can score high on UN eParticipation; 3. Countries who severely obstruct citizen internet use by filtering can score high on eParticipation by introducing technical tools on their web; 4. Authoritarian countries who blatantly and persistently obstruct Internet use can improve their eGovernment score considerably by adding some eParticipation features on their webs; 5. Democratic participation is much better measured by the Economist's general eGovernment index, in particular the "Social and cultural environment" section of that index which is significantly related to the EIU democracy index. All in all, measuring eParticipation by the UN index is wrong. It does not measure the values which are proposed as its underpinnings, namely the democratic values which are the foundation of eParticipation research. It is also potentially dangerous as its name gives a kind of democratic gloss to the eGovernment index which is in fact contradicted in its practice.

To arrive at a credible eParticipation index there is a need to introduce an element of reality check. This requires two types of modifications. One is to include some measure of actual use, for example the ONI web filtering index. This is the same method as is already used for other categories of the UN index, where measurements of web sites are complemented by national and international statistics, e.g. from the ITU. Applying the same method to the eParticipation category we suggest defining a composite index including the two ones we have used here -democracy and internet filtering -as a complement to the online tools currently measured by the UN. This way no country could boost their score by window-dressing, by putting some new politically correct electronic tools on their web site. Another measure would be to remodel the inspection of the eParticipation tool list so as to also include use items, e.g. number of postings and number of participants in a discussion forum.

eGovernment must relate to real Government. Only by enforcing rating methods that combine both that we can get real effects. The UN eParticipation index as of today is a dangerous tool because it is not related to the real world of government.

Fig. 1 .

 1 Fig. 1. Ranks on the UN 2010 eParticipation vs the EIU 2010 democracy index (x-axis). Lower rank is better (1st place is the best)

  For people to dare to use such tools,

Fig. 3 .

 3 Fig. 3. EIU democracy index vs Economist's "Policy and vision" category of the eGovernment index, 2010.

Fig. 4 .

 4 Fig. 4. EIU vs Economist social and cultural indexTurning now to government practice in the technology field concerning eParticipation we consider the ONI index for web censorship and filtering. Table2displays selected countries and shows that the addition of the eParticipation index into

  Pervasive filtering has both depth -blocks a large portion of the targeted content-and breadth -filters several categories of a given theme. 2. Substantial filtering has either depth or breadth: either a number of categories are subject to a medium level of filtering or a low level of filtering is carried out across many categories. 3. Selective filtering: Narrowly targeted filtering that blocks a small number of specific sites across a few categories or filtering that targets a single category or issue. 4. Suspected filtering: Connectivity abnormalities are present that suggest the presence of filtering, although empirical test cannot confirm conclusively that inaccessible Web sites are the result of deliberate tampering.

	3. Conflict/security: Content related to armed conflicts, border disputes, separatist
	movements, and militant groups.
	4. Internet tools: Web sites that provide e-mail, Internet hosting, search,
	translation, Voice-over Internet Protocol (VoIP) telephone service, and
	circumvention methods.
	The scores reflecting the magnitude of the filtering for each of the themes are
	defined as:
	1.

Table 1 .

 1 Averages for selected groups of countries

	EUI index	UN eParticipation score average (0-1, 1 is best)
	Top 15 % (30 countries), full democracies	0.42
	10 best countries of bottom 30 % countries	0.32
	(authoritarian)
	15 best countries of bottom 30 % (authoritarian)	0.29
	Lower 50% of top 15 % (15 countries), full	0.21
	democracies

Table 2 .

 2 eParticipation ranking compared to Internet filtering, transparency and democracy.

					ONI score	ONI score
	Country	Rank in UN eGov index	Rank in UN eParticip. index	Rank/score/ category in EIU democracy index	on Filtering (0-16; 16 means most severe	on Transpar. (1-3; 3 is the most
					filtering)	transpar.)
	Pakistan	146	68	104/4.55/Hybrid	9	2
	Kyrgyzstan	91	28	106/4.31/Hybrid	4	1
	Sudan	154	102	151/2.42	8	3
				/Authoritarian
	China	72	32	136 3.14	16	1
				/Authoritarian
	Morocco	126	86	116/3.79	6	1
				/Authoritarian
	Ethiopia	172	135	118 /3.68	8	1
				/Authoritarian
	Belarus	64	51	130/3.34	8	1
				/Authoritarian

The entire set can be retrieved at http://www2.unpan.org/egovkb/global_reports/index.htm

The 2009 measurement can be retrieved at https://www-935.ibm.com/services/us/gbs/bus/pdf/e-readiness_rankings_june_2009_final_web.pdf

http://brown.edu/Administration/News_Bureau/2006-07/06-007.html


Teta Stamati

Thanos Papadopoulos
email: a.papadopoulos@soton.ac.uk

Drakoulis Martakos
email: martakos@di.uoa.gr

Transformational Government citizens' services adoption: a conceptual framework

Keywords: transformational government, interpretivist school, theory building

Despite the need expressed in the literature for shedding light upon the mechanisms that underpin the transformational process of t-Government, there is still research to be conducted regarding the critical factors that affect the citizens' adoption of local government transformational services. To address this gap, this research reports on the findings of the use of the structured-case approach and suggests a framework to investigate the success factors for t-Gov in a Greek context. The paper reveals that transformational government is not a state, but a process entailing experiential judgement. Existing acceptance theories, hence, need to be complemented by additional variables that affect citizens' adoption of transformational services.

Introduction

The successful delivery of public policy is increasingly dependent upon the effective use and application of new technologies and Information Systems (IS) [START_REF] Papadopoulos | Public Sector Reform Using Information Technologies: Transforming Policy into Practice[END_REF]. However, significant issues are raised when policy conceptualizations travel through the many and often labyrinthine levels of public administration. To address these issues and change the way citizens interact and communicate with each other, as well as to enhance the relationship between citizens and government, transformational government (t-Gov) comes to the fore [START_REF] Janssen | Transformational government: basics and key issues[END_REF][3] [START_REF] Irani | Evaluationg egovernment: learning from the experiences of two UK local authorities[END_REF].

The study reports on the use of the structured-case approach to investigate the success factors for a massive Greek t-Gov initiative in Greek Local Government Organisations (LGOs) to investigate the parameters that ensure the smooth use of the Local Government Application Framework (LGAF) [START_REF]LGAF project: Local Government Application Framework. 6th Framework Programme[END_REF]. The paper outlines the contribution of the structured-case approach to build t-Gov theory following the interpretivist approach [START_REF]LGAF project: Local Government Application Framework. 6th Framework Programme[END_REF] [6] [START_REF] Denzin | Collecting and interpreting qualitative materials[END_REF] [8] [START_REF] Oates | Researching information systems and computing[END_REF]. The structure of the paper is as follows: after a brief review of t-Gov and factors affecting its success, the research methods and context of the study are discussed. It follows the discussion of the study results and the presentation of the improved framework. The last section concludes the paper.

Technology acceptance theories

Past research on e-Gov has focused on implementation by using diffusion models. In particular, research has used Diffusion of Innovation (DOI) Theory [START_REF] Grönlund | Ten years of eGovernment: the end of history and a new beginning[END_REF]. Relevant studies [START_REF] Rogers | Diffusion of Innovations[END_REF] [12] [13] [14] focusing on the role of administration size and professionalism on the adoption of computer technology [START_REF] Angelopoulos | Identifying Critical Success Factors in e-Government: A New service development approach[END_REF]. Furthermore, literature has referred to the IS Success Model [START_REF] Delone | Information systems success: The quest for the dependent variable[END_REF] and the Technology Acceptance Model (TAM) [START_REF] Davis | Perceived usefulness, perceived ease of use and user acceptance of information technology[END_REF] as another means for discussing the particularities of the e-Gov implementation by measuring perceived usefulness (PU) and perceived ease of use (PEOU). TAM [START_REF] Davis | Perceived usefulness, perceived ease of use and user acceptance of information technology[END_REF], based on the Theory of Reasoned Action (TRA) [START_REF] Ajzen | Attitudes and normative beliefs as factors influencing intentions[END_REF], is one of the most well established theoretical frameworks that describe how users accept and use a technology [START_REF] Davis | User acceptance of computer technology: A comparison of two theoretical models[END_REF]. The factors discussed by the TAM [START_REF] Benbasat | Quo vadis TAM[END_REF] [21] [START_REF] Schepers | A meta-analysis of the technology acceptance model: investigating subjective norm and moderation effects[END_REF] have been utilised in various studies of acceptance of technology, IS, [START_REF] Venkatesh | A theoretical extension of the technology acceptance model: four longitudinal field studies[END_REF] [24] and e-commerce [START_REF] Gefen | The relative importance of perceived ease of use in IS adoption: a study of e-commerce adoption[END_REF] [26] [START_REF] Gefen | Trust and TAM in online shopping: an integrated model[END_REF]. Building on these TAM versions, the Unified Theory of Acceptance and Use of Technology (UTAUT) was introduced by [START_REF] Venkatesh | User acceptance of information technology: Toward a unified view[END_REF], consisting of three factors namely performance expectancy, effort expectancy, and social influence and relevant studies have emerged [START_REF] Shajari | A comprehensive adoption model of e-Government services in developing countries[END_REF] [30] However, Paul et al. [START_REF] Paul | Why do people use information technology? A critical review of the technology acceptance model[END_REF] suggest that TAM is not conclusive and suffers from the absence of factors regarding social and human processes. Moreover, PEOU is not consistently linked to adoption [25] [32] [33] [START_REF] Venkatesh | A theoretical extension of the technology acceptance model: four longitudinal field studies[END_REF]. Finally, TAM is criticised for representing subjective user assessments of a system [START_REF] Angelopoulos | Identifying Critical Success Factors in e-Government: A New service development approach[END_REF] [START_REF] Carter | The utilization of e-government services: citizen trust, innovation and acceptance factors[END_REF].

Literature [34] [30] suggests that since there are many similarities between ecommerce and e-Gov, TAM factors in e-commerce [START_REF] Gefen | The relative importance of perceived ease of use in IS adoption: a study of e-commerce adoption[END_REF] [26] [START_REF] Gefen | Trust and TAM in online shopping: an integrated model[END_REF] [35] could be used in the case of e-Gov [START_REF] Carter | The utilization of e-government services: citizen trust, innovation and acceptance factors[END_REF]. However, the use of TAM has not been used extensively in the case of t-Gov, taking under consideration its nature [START_REF] Sipior | The digital divide and t-government in the United States: using the technology acceptance model to understand usage[END_REF] [START_REF] Pilling | Moving toward egovernment -effective strategies for increasing access and use of the internet among non-internet users in the U.S. and U.K[END_REF]. Therefore, this study aims to: understand the factors that affect citizens' adoption and on going usage of LGAF, and suggest a conceptual model explaining the dynamics of citizens and acceptance of the LGAF.

Motivation for the study

This paper uses LGAF to study the smooth implementation of t-Gov. LGAF reshapes access to information by integrating almost two hundred and fifty electronic government services in many different domains of the public administration such as in health, social care, education, public transportation, cultural, and other sectors and creates various organizational and technological constraints [START_REF] Fulk | Social construction of communication technology[END_REF] [40] [START_REF] Kling | Learning about information technologies and social change: The contribution of social informatics[END_REF] [START_REF] Williams | The social shaping of technology. New York, Information and Communication Technologies: Visions and Realities[END_REF].

LGAF is Greek/European co-funded initiative for the Central Union of Municipalities and Communities of Greece (www.kedke.gr). It aims to bring together the central and local governments, the private sector, and the society, by providing advanced, secure, privacy-aware, interoperable, and high-administrative national electronic services.

Research method and case description

This research follows the interpretive paradigm [START_REF] Walsham | The emergence of interpretivism in IS research[END_REF] [43] [START_REF] Denzin | Collecting and interpreting qualitative materials[END_REF] [44] [START_REF] Lee | Generalizing in information systems research[END_REF] [45] [START_REF] Oates | Researching information systems and computing[END_REF]. The authors adopted a methodological approach based on the structured-case research method [START_REF] Carroll | Using Case Studies to Build Theory: Structure and Rigour[END_REF] [47] [START_REF] Neuman | Social Research Methods: Qualitative and Quantitative Approaches[END_REF] [49] [START_REF] Galliers | Reflection on Information Systems: Twelve Points to Debate. Berkshire, UK, Information Systems: An Emerging Discipline[END_REF].

Conceptual framework (CF1)

The limited research undertaken regarding LGOs' citizens adoption of transformational services enforced the authors mainly to use TAM as baseline to develop the initial CF1. The initial CF1 (Figure 1) includes constructs derived from the literature and existing technology acceptance theories.

Intention to Adopt Transformational e-Services

Legislation & Regulatory Framework

Perceived Usefulness

Perceived Ease of Use The model attempts to capture the complex relationships involved in t-Gov services adoption. Apart from PU and PEOU, the adoption of t-Gov services raises important political, cultural, organizational, technological, human and social issues.

CF1 thus includes:

Ease of Use: significant field research has taken place the past two decades regarding the effects that the construct PEOU has on both PU and intention to use [START_REF] Davis | User acceptance of computer technology: A comparison of two theoretical models[END_REF] [START_REF] Hu | Examining the technology acceptance model using physician acceptance of telemedicine technology[END_REF]. Hence, PEOU will have a positive effect on both PU and behavioral intention to keep using LGAF.

Usefulness: Individual behavioral intention to use a provided service is strongly affected by users' PU [START_REF] Davis | User acceptance of computer technology: A comparison of two theoretical models[END_REF] [51] [START_REF] Jackson | Toward an understanding of the behavioural intentions to use an information system[END_REF]. Hence, it is likely that high citizens' PU will lead them to positive evaluation of the necessity of LGAF.

Motivation: Potential individual differences in motivation to use a technological innovation were suggested to be one of the most relevant variables in the adoption and use [START_REF] Hong | Determinants of user acceptance of digital libraries: An empirical examination of individual differences and system characteristics[END_REF] [START_REF] Stafford | Consumer bidding behavior on Internet auction sites[END_REF]. Active use of new technology with greater motivation has been found to produce stronger behavioral effects on the use of it [START_REF] Rubin | The uses-and-gratifications perspective of media effects[END_REF].

Compatibility: Based on DOI, authors consider as an important proposition the fact that higher levels of perceived compatibility are associated with increased intentions to adopt t-Gov. Users will be willing to use services congruent with their preferred way of interaction [START_REF] Carter | The utilization of e-government services: citizen trust, innovation and acceptance factors[END_REF].

Legislation & Regulatory Framework: Current legislation frameworks are characterized by the assignment of significant powers to public bodies and the recognition of relevant formal guarantees for citizens, based typically on observance by public administrations of a legally predetermined bureaucratic-based sequence of steps. Many rules become barriers to the effective implementation of t-Gov and erode its confidence among citizens, since they are made too rigid to accommodate the changes by ICT professionals.

Trustworthiness & Security: perceived trustworthiness and security are considered as a significant construct. Trustworthiness can be divided into "trust to the initiative" and "trust to the LGO" [START_REF] Bélanger | Trustworthiness in electronic commerce: the role of privacy, security, and site attributes[END_REF] The authors hypothesize that higher levels of perceived trustworthiness are positively related to intention to use LGAF, considering past studies on trust, security, and technological innovations [START_REF] Carter | The utilization of e-government services: citizen trust, innovation and acceptance factors[END_REF] [START_REF] Mcknight | Developing and validating trust measures for e-commerce: an integrative typology[END_REF].

Compliance with Policy: The authors suggest that governmental policy can establish communication channels that may either promote citizens' adoption and use of t-Gov services, or induce resistance [19] [58].

Methodological Approach of the Research Cycle

The first research cycle aimed to validate and further revise the CF1. The case studies took place in twelve LGOs that participated as 'pilots' LGOs. A variety of primary (e.g. interviews) and secondary data sources, such as internal and technical reports for

LGOs operations and requirements were used. A two-day workshop took place in five different places around Greece with the participation of total of two hundred and fifty stakeholders (experts from the LGOs, the Greek Ministry of Interior, the ICT industry and people from the local regions) (Table 1). Based on these data, the authors synthesized a set of key factors that citizens consider as important. Afterwards, a set of requirements for the effective design and implementation of LGAF were consolidated as the first user scenarios. During the workshops, more than fifty in number, regional and national individual interviews, were conducted with the LGOs employees, the chief technology officers, the administrators, the consultants, and the citizens as potential users. The duration of each interview was approximately forty five minutes.

Findings and discussion

The data analysis demonstrates that adoption agenda is influenced by a combination of issues at the individual level. Hence, a multi-disciplinary approach is essential to its investigation and research, involving an effective management of systems, information, policies, processes, and change. To this point, debates during the workshops were about the fit of technology on LGOs' processes and operations rather that developing the right technology. Some of the variables identified in the CF1 were found to be inter-reliant. The authors followed the classification of t-Gov terminology and attempted to group the findings as human and social constructs, organizational constructs and technical constructs, allowing for more specific concepts to emerge within such groupings. Human and Social Constructs: "Compatibility" was found to have a significant relationship with use intentions in t-Gov. The participants strongly suggested that

LGAF should operate in a manner that "is consistent with individuals' values, beliefs and experiences" and provide information and work support in a manner that is "consistent with what citizens are used on". Another significant concern was "trustworthiness". Citizens, who perceived the reliability and security of the internet to be low, presented obstacles when using LGAF [START_REF] Mcknight | Developing and validating trust measures for e-commerce: an integrative typology[END_REF]. There was a long debate between participants in the workshops regarding the notion of initial trust to LGAF that refers to "trust in an unfamiliar trustee, a relationship in which the actors do not yet have credible, meaningful information about, or affective bonds with, each other" [START_REF] Mcknight | Developing and validating trust measures for e-commerce: an integrative typology[END_REF]. Regarding trustworthiness, citizens who perceived Greek government to be trustworthy consider the introduction of LGAF as a welcome initiative. Governmental-based trust was mainly associated with citizens' perceptions of the governmental environment, such as the structures, regulations and legislation that make an individual feel safe and trustworthy [START_REF] Lee | A trust model for internet shopping[END_REF].

Another important construct was the motivation or the perceived need for working 'over the wire'. In demographic terms, the data analysis revealed that a percentage of 76% of the interviewees stated they intend to immediate use LGAF (early LGAF adopters) were people in young age, more educated (80% of them holding a University degree) and with relatively high incomes (40% of them had a net family income more than thirty thousand per year). This indicated that individual demographic characteristics were also influencing the adoption of provided services. The cases analysis proved that a group of individuals were more likely to keep using

LGAF than others. Consequently, we examined two factors namely, the level of prior Internet usage and the citizens innovativeness. Individual innovativeness can be defined as 'consumer acceptance' of new ideas [START_REF] Irani | Evaluationg egovernment: learning from the experiences of two UK local authorities[END_REF]. The findings supported that higher Internet usage led to LGAF adoption. Domain-specific innovativeness, i.e. innovation linked to certain domains was found to influence LGAF adoption. Finally, there was a group of users persuaded very quickly of the LGAF's significant advantages compared to prior institutional systems. This proved that individual perceived relative advantage enforced the individual intention to use.

Organizational Constructs:

The discussions concerned the coordination and ownership between and across LGOs and departments, the political engagement regarding the delivery of technology supported services, the LGO capacity including available resources (human, technical, etc.), change and risk management issues as well as the appropriate legal and legislation framework. Participants discussed about the nature and mission of LGOs and their relationship with the electronic services provided. There was a clear concern regarding potential future developments and change [START_REF] Irani | Evaluationg egovernment: learning from the experiences of two UK local authorities[END_REF]. Clear policies for LGOs were seen to be critical. Key issues included sense of ownership and the required organisational transformation. A key concern was about ways to cope with organisational inertia. A particularly important area of risk was the access to governmental services and the issue of community inclusion. Furthermore, it emerged that measurement and evaluation techniques were necessary to realise the learning perspectives of t-Gov. To achieve successful transformational implementations it is necessary to establish coherent legitimacy and establish trust relationships between government and citizens. Since the legal framework regarding the provision of electronic services is 'still in infancy', a cohesive legal framework is required to speed the adoption of t-Gov. The research has revealed that four main sets of legislation are considered: personal data protection laws; privacy and security laws; information (provision) laws; and administrative laws.

Technical Constructs: Various technical parameters that might affect LGAF adoption and regular use were revealed. The supporting staff in LGOs stressed the need for a less complex framework and more user-friendly in its user interface, and the forms and templates. The majority of interviewers and workshop participants were sceptical about the use of innovative technological tools, by aged users; the authors labelled this attribute 'computer anxiety'. IT experts identified the need for flexible and scalable technology, privacy and security, shared services and common identity management, standards, coordination and integration between LGOs operations and departments, identification and authentication. Regarding the notions of scalability and flexibility of governmental systems, the cases revealed that there is need to create flexible systems that can adapt and change on demand in accordance to the changing nature of t-Gov [2] [START_REF] Irani | Electronic Transformation of government in the U.K.: a research agenda[END_REF]. There was no definite agreement regarding what constitutes valid and appropriate access to information. Finally, issues of interoperability and standardisation arose, stemming from the way different LGO's departments can be managed, the technical tools needed for integration and the standardisation of certain data and services. To this extend, the notions of open standards and open source software were highlighted.

Conceptual framework (CF2)

The research findings resulted in the modification of the CF1 to a revised framework (CF2) (Figure 2). The proposed CF2 can be used as the basis for further research. The adoption of LGAF from citizens is presented as the initial crucial step in the diffusion process for government to capture its goals, enable an environment for social and economic growth, and contribute to the process of transformation of the Greek local administration towards a leaner and cost-effective administration. The real benefit of LGAF lies not in the use of technological framework per se, but in its application to processes of transformation in the Greek bureaucratic public sector.

Conclusions

T-Gov initiatives have been identified as one of the top central government priorities. Citizens' acceptance of LGAF raises important political, cultural, organisational, technological and social issues that must be considered carefully. In this research a framework which consists of concepts and details about the key adoption factors of t-Gov was developed, which can be used as a tool to determine the roadmap for adoption of a t-Gov initiative. Further research could include the study of how the perceived attributes of trialability and observability may affect the adoption of transformational services by citizens. Although the nature of the study does not allow the generalisation of findings, we could suggest that future research should also aim at exploring the applicability of this framework to other e-government projects.

Fig 1 .

 1 Fig 1. Initial Conceptual Framework for Transformational Government

Fig. 2 .

 2 Fig. 2. Final Conceptual Framework for Transformational Government

Table 1 .

 1 Workshops' participation

	Workshops	Duration	Participants No	Profile of Participants
	WS1	1st day: 6h 2nd day: 5h	65	Male: 58; Female: 24 Academia: 7; LGOs: 31; Industry: 13; Citizens: 30
	WS2	1st day: 5h 2nd day: 4h	47	Male: 19; Female: 12 Academia: 1; LGOs: 12; Industry: 9; Citizens: 9
	WS3	1st day: 5h 2nd day: 5h	40	Male: 37; Female: 22 Academia: 1; LGOs: 24; Industry: 5; Citizens: 29
	WS4	1st day: 6h 2nd day: 4h	36	Male: 17; Female: 21 Academia: 3; LGOs: 16; Industry: 8; Citizens: 11
	WS4	1st day: 5h 2nd day: 3h	36	Male: 26; Female: 16 Academia: 3; LGOs: 21; Industry: 11; Citizens: 7