GLOBAL e-READINESS - for WHAT?

A wide range of studies on e-Readiness, undertaken over the past several years, constitutes the ‘first generation’ in our understanding of e-Readiness. These are pioneering efforts and have begun to chart unknown terrain. Their contributions are commendable. But, as with all pioneering efforts, these studies are fraught with uncertainties and ambiguities in both theory and practice and lack robust foundations for empirical analysis. As such, they provide little guidance for business and government, thus obscuring the realities as well as the opportunities. For example, current e-Readiness studies and attendant indices assume a fixed, one-size-fits-all set of requirements, regardless of the characteristics of individual countries or the demands for specific applications. Most e-Readiness studies provide little information on how their indices were constructed and why, or how they might be adjusted to analyze particular eBusiness opportunities. This paper (i) reviews this ‘first generation’ of e-Readiness inquiry, (ii) draws upon the results to develop research strategy for framing the ‘next generation’ and (iii) shows the design and preliminary results for a ‘next generation’ of e-Readiness initiatives – in theory and in practice. Our framework extends beyond the basics in terms of general requisites for e-Readiness -and seeks to provide tools to address the diverse needs of different e-Business applications, highlight alternative paths to e-Business, and clarify the possibilities in different economic contexts. We present an initial theory for capturing critical factors and derive a data-model for tracking and representing evolving e-Readiness experiences. The utility of the data model is shown with reference to e-Banking in different countries as well as specific applications of e-Banking opportunity.

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