Lean e-integration for development: the case of the national licensing center in Albania

E-government services have transformed public services for citizens and organizations. Yet, the challenge remains to integrate the increasing number of projects and systems not only according to budgetary or political agendas, but based on what end-users expect from the new services. This study analyzes how lean management referring to increased value and reduction of waste could be applied to e-integration reforms for development. The findings are based on the new National Licensing Center in Albania, a developing country in South-East Europe. They suggest that integrated change takes time and there is significant resistance from old practices and structures, regardless of the information technology solutions. One-stop-shop agencies have the potential to enact lean management in practice by providing more standardized and efficient services for end-users. However, continuous improvements for integrated services require more attention than temporary projects for sustainable development.

[1]  David Clark,et al.  The Capability Approach: Its Development, Critiques and Recent Advances , 2005 .

[2]  Fred D. Davis,et al.  A Theoretical Extension of the Technology Acceptance Model: Four Longitudinal Field Studies , 2000, Management Science.

[3]  Kentaro Toyama,et al.  Intermediated technology use in developing communities , 2010, CHI.

[4]  Dorothea Kleine,et al.  POLICY ARENA ICT4WHAT?— USING THE CHOICE FRAMEWORK TO OPERATIONALISE THE CAPABILITY APPROACH TO DEVELOPMENT , 2010 .

[5]  John Bicheno,et al.  The Lean Toolbox for Service Systems , 2008 .

[6]  ’. RahulDe,et al.  E-Government Systems in Developing Countries : Stakeholders and Conflict , 2005 .

[7]  Richard Heeks.  e-Government as a Carrier of Context , 2005, Journal of Public Policy.

[8]  D. West.  E‐Government and the Transformation of Service Delivery and Citizen Attitudes , 2004 .

[9]  M. Callon.  Actor-Network Theory—The Market Test , 1999 .

[10]  Izak Benbasat,et al.  The Case Research Strategy in Studies of Information Systems , 1987, MIS Q..

[11]  Yingqin Zheng,et al.  EXPLORING THE VALUE OF THE CAPABILITY APPROACH FOR E-DEVELOPMENT , 2007 .

[12]  M. Turshen.  Development as Freedom , 2001 .

[13]  Ingrid Robeyns,et al.  Valuing Freedoms: Sen's Capability Approach and Poverty Reduction, SABINA ALKIRE. Oxford University Press, 2002, vii+340 pages. , 2003, Economics and Philosophy.

[14]  Jörg Becker,et al.  Identifying Factors of E-Government Acceptance - A Literature Review , 2012, ICIS.

[15]  William Feld,et al.  Lean Manufacturing: Tools, Techniques, and How to Use Them , 2000 .

[16]  Yingqin Zheng,et al.  Different spaces for e-development: What can we learn from the capability approachq , 2009 .

[17]  Gabrielle Durepos.  Reassembling the Social: An Introduction to Actor‐Network‐Theory , 2008 .

[18]  Fred D. Davis.  A technology acceptance model for empirically testing new end-user information systems : theory and results , 1985 .

[19]  Valentina Ndou,et al.  E – Government for Developing Countries: Opportunities and Challenges , 2004, Electron. J. Inf. Syst. Dev. Ctries..

[20]  Rui Chen,et al.  Emergency communication and system design: The case of Indian Ocean Tsunami , 2009, 2009 International Conference on Information and Communication Technologies and Development (ICTD).

[21]  Edward D. Arnheiter,et al.  The integration of lean management and Six Sigma , 2005 .

[22]  S. Bailur.  Using Stakeholder Theory to Analyze Telecenter Projects , 2007 .

[23]  Danny Berry,et al.  Leagility: Integrating the lean and agile manufacturing paradigms in the total supply chain , 1999 .

[24]  I. Robeyns.  The Capability Approach in Practice , 2006 .

[25]  John Law,et al.  Notes on the theory of the actor-network: Ordering, strategy, and heterogeneity , 1992 .

[26]  Claudio Ciborra,et al.  Interpreting e-government and development: Efficiency, transparency or governance at a distance? , 2005, Inf. Technol. People.

[27]  Gordon B. Davis,et al.  User Acceptance of Information Technology: Toward a Unified View , 2003, MIS Q..

[28]  Peter T. Ward,et al.  Lean manufacturing: context, practice bundles, and performance , 2003 .

[29]  Jungwoo Lee,et al.  Developing fully functional E-government: A four stage model , 2001, Gov. Inf. Q..

[30]  I. Robeyns.  Please Scroll down for Article Journal of Human Development the Capability Approach: a Theoretical Survey the Capability Approach: a Theoretical Survey , 2022 .

[31]  B. Olken,et al.  Corruption in Developing Countries , 2011 .

[32]  Edoardo Ongaro,et al.  Process management in the public sector: the experience of one-stop shops in Italy , 2004 .

[33]  D. Gasper.  Is Sen's Capability Approach an Adequate Basis for Considering Human Development? , 2002 .

[34]  Yingqin Zheng,et al.  Different spaces for e-development: What can we learn from the capability approach? , 2009, Inf. Technol. Dev..

[35]  Geoff Walsham,et al.  Doing interpretive research , 2006, Eur. J. Inf. Syst..

[36]  John Krogstie,et al.  Service delivery in transformational government: model and scenarios , 2011, Electron. Gov. an Int. J..

[37]  Pei-Chia Chang,et al.  Achieving Network Stability through Convergence--Case Study of an E-Government Project Using Actor Network Theory , 2012, 2012 45th Hawaii International Conference on System Sciences.

[38]  Jungwoo Lee,et al.  10 year retrospect on stage models of e-Government: A qualitative meta-synthesis , 2010, Gov. Inf. Q..