Factors Influencing Interoperability Level Required for the Implementation of T-Government in Saudi Arabia

Governments around the world have invested significant sums of money on Information and Communication Technology (ICT) to improve the efficiency and effectiveness of services being provided to their citizens. However, they have not achieved the desired results because of the lack of interoperability between different government entities. Therefore, many governments have started shifting away from the original concept of e-Government towards a much more transformational approach that encompasses the entire relationship between different government departments and users of public services, which can be termed as transformational government (t-Government). This implementation of t-Government requires a high level of interoperability between government organisations. In this paper, a model is proposed to explore and investigates the key factors that influence interoperability required for the implementation of t-Government in Saudi Arabian context from four key areas, namely, organisational, technological, political and social using institutional theory as a lens. This model was developed comprising the effect of six main constructs: technological compatibility, organizational compatibility, governance readiness, citizen centricity and e-Government program on interoperability required for the implementation of t-Government. The model factors, relationships, and hypotheses stemmed from the literature on Information Sharing, Information Integration, G2G, interoperability and t-Government models.The results show that technological compatibility, organizational compatibility, and governance readiness have a positive impact on the interoperability required for the implementation of t-Government in this particular context. Unexpectedly, it indicates that citizen centricity has negative impact on the interoperability required for the implementation of t-Government. It also shows that there is a direct and positive impact from e-Government program (Yesser) to technological compatibility and governance readiness. Moreover, it shows that there is a direct and positive impact from citizen centricity to e-Government program (Yesser). Unexpectedly, the results indicate that e-Government program (Yesser) has no impact on the interoperability required for the implementation of t-Government. It also indicates that the e-Government program (Yesser) doesn’t affect organizational compatibility.This paper provides a model for creating interoperability between government organisations to help e-Government officials and policy makers to identify the key factors that can affect the interoperability level required for the implementation of t-Government, and examines how these issues could be treated in practice. It also provides a guideline to researchers with regard to the impact of these identified factors on interoperability required for t-Government implementation.

[1]  Bram Klievink,et al.  Barriers and impediments to transformational government: insights from literature and practice , 2011, Electron. Gov. an Int. J..

[2]  Theresa A. Pardo,et al.  E-Government Interoperability , 2012 .

[3]  M. Hammer,et al.  REENGINEERING THE CORPORATION: A MANIFESTO FOR BUSINESS REVOLUTION , 1995 .

[4]  H. Scholl.  Involving Salient Stakeholders , 2004 .

[5]  Richard M. Crowder,et al.  An integrated model for influencing Saudi Arabian citizens to adopt E-government services. , 2013 .

[6]  Richard Heeks.  Reinventing Government in the Information Age: International Practice in IT-Enabled Public Sector Reform , 2002 .

[7]  Hans Jochen Scholl,et al.  Information Quality as a Common Ground for Key Players in e-Government Integration and Interoperability , 2006, Proceedings of the 39th Annual Hawaii International Conference on System Sciences (HICSS'06).

[8]  David Garlan,et al.  Architectural Mismatch or Why it's hard to build systems out of existing parts , 1995, 1995 17th International Conference on Software Engineering.

[9]  Robert Goodwin,et al.  Towards a UTAUT-based Model for the Study of E-Government Citizen Acceptance in Saudi Arabia , 2012 .

[10]  R. Hellman.  Organisational barriers to interoperability , 2010, eChallenges e-2010 Conference.

[11]  Efthimios Tambouris,et al.  e-Government and Interoperability , 2005, ECEG.

[12]  Hans Jochen Scholl,et al.  Organizational Interoperability in E-Government - Lessons from 77 European Good-Practice Cases , 2011 .

[13]  Manish Gupta,et al.  A critical survey of selected government interoperability frameworks , 2011 .

[14]  Victor Bekkers.  The Governance of Back Office Integration in E-Government: Some Dutch Experiences , 2005, EGOV.

[15]  Xianggui Qu,et al.  Multivariate Data Analysis , 2007, Technometrics.

[16]  M. P. Gupta,et al.  Transforming Government : People , Process and Policy Effect of organizational factors on interoperability adoption for Indian portals , 2014 .

[17]  Laurence E. Lynn,et al.  Governance and Performance: New Perspectives , 2001 .

[18]  P.J. Hu,et al.  Examining Cross-Agency Collaborations in E-Government Initiatives , 2006, Proceedings of the 39th Annual Hawaii International Conference on System Sciences (HICSS'06).

[19]  Christopher G. Reddick,et al.  Citizen interaction with e-government: From the streets to servers? , 2005, Gov. Inf. Q..

[20]  Delfina Soares,et al.  Information systems interoperability in public administration: Identifying the major acting forces through a Delphi study , 2011, J. Theor. Appl. Electron. Commer. Res..

[21]  Eglė Malinauskienė.  Conceptual Framework for Context-Based E-Government Interoperability Development , 2013 .

[22]  Ralf Klischewski.  Architectures for Tinkering? Contextual Strategies towards Interoperability in E-government , 2011, J. Theor. Appl. Electron. Commer. Res..

[23]  Stanley Y. W. Su,et al.  Interoperation of Organizational Data, Rules, Processes and Services for Achieving Inter-Organizational Coordination and Collaboration , 2011, 2011 44th Hawaii International Conference on System Sciences.

[24]  Thomas H. Davenport,et al.  Process Innovation: Reengineering Work Through Information Technology , 1992 .

[25]  Zahir Irani,et al.  Analyzing the role of stakeholders in the adoption of technology integration solutions in UK local government: An exploratory study , 2011, Gov. Inf. Q..

[26]  Denise de Vries,et al.  A Structural Equation Model (SEM) of Governing Factors Influencing the Implementation of T-Government , 2016 .

[27]  David Landsbergen,et al.  Realizing the Promise: Government Information Systems and the Fourth Generation of Information Technology , 2001 .

[28]  Ralf Klischewski,et al.  Information Integration or Process Integration? How to Achieve Interoperability in Administration , 2004, EGOV.

[29]  Gary Higgs,et al.  E-Government in Saudi Arabia: Between Promise and Reality , 2008, Int. J. Electron. Gov. Res..

[30]  Wing Lam,et al.  Barriers to e-government integration , 2005, J. Enterp. Inf. Manag..

[31]  John Wanna,et al.  Putting Citizens First: Engagement in Policy and Service Delivery for the 21st Century , 2013 .

[32]  Jaijit Bhattacharya,et al.  Identifying Factors of Integration for an Interoperable Government Portal: A Study in Indian Context , 2011, Int. J. Electron. Gov. Res..

[33]  Wing Lam,et al.  Investigating success factors in enterprise application integration: a case-driven analysis , 2005, Eur. J. Inf. Syst..

[34]  Grace A. Lewis,et al.  Interoperability in the e-Government Context , 2012 .

[35]  Zahir Irani,et al.  T-government for benefit realisation , 2007 .

[36]  Yannis Charalabidis,et al.  Towards Standardising Interoperability Levels for Information Systems of Public Administrations , 2008 .

[37]  Nicolau Reinhard,et al.  Electronic Government Interoperability , 2012 .

[38]  Marijn Janssen,et al.  Interoperability for electronic governance , 2007, ICEGOV '07.

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

[40]  Marijn Janssen,et al.  Guest Editors’ Introduction: E-government Interoperability, Infrastructure and Architecture: State-of-the-art and Challenges , 2011 .

[41]  Shouhong Wang,et al.  The Implementation of Business Process Reengineering , 1995, J. Manag. Inf. Syst..

[42]  Theresa A. Pardo,et al.  Improving Government Interoperability: A capability framework for government managers , 2008 .

[43]  V. Weerakkody,et al.  Instigating Transformational Government at a Municipality Level: A Case Study , 2009 .

[44]  Ralf Klischewski,et al.  E-Government Integration and Interoperability: Framing the Research Agenda , 2007 .

[45]  Dimitris Gouscos,et al.  A general model of performance and quality for one-stop e-Government service offerings , 2007, Gov. Inf. Q..

[46]  O. A. Mahroqi.  Factors influencing citizen's adoption of e-Government services in Saudi Arabia , 2012 .

[47]  Vishanth Weerakkody,et al.  Moving from E-Government to T-Government: A Study of Process Reengineering Challenges in a UK Local Authority Context , 2008, Int. J. Electron. Gov. Res..

[48]  David L. Olson,et al.  Public sector information system critical success factors , 2008 .

[49]  Omiros D. Sarikas,et al.  Realising integrated e‐government services: a UK local government perspective , 2007 .

[50]  Pam J. Mayhew,et al.  Accessibility : In-Depth Evaluation of Saudi Arabia and Oman , 2005 .

[51]  Steve Drew,et al.  Challenges of e-Government Services Adoption in Saudi Arabia from an e-Ready Citizen Perspective , 2010 .

[52]  Chowdhury Hossan,et al.  Success and Failure Factors for e-Government projects implementation in developing countries : A study on the perception of government officials of Bangladesh , 2006 .

[53]  John F. Affisco,et al.  E-government: a strategic operations management framework for service delivery , 2006, Bus. Process. Manag. J..

[54]  Richard Heeks,et al.  Understanding e-Government project trajectories from an actor-network perspective , 2007, Eur. J. Inf. Syst..

[55]  R. Zwicker,et al.  Barriers for transformation: Impediments for transforming the public sector through e-government , 2009 .

[56]  Robert Goodwin,et al.  Evaluation of Organizational E-Government Readiness in the Public Sector , 2013, Int. J. E Serv. Mob. Appl..

[57]  Manish Gupta,et al.  Interoperability and Constituents of Interoperable Systems in Public Sector , 2009 .

[58]  M. J. Moon.  The Evolution of E-Government among Municipalities: Rhetoric or Reality? , 2002 .

[59]  Rabea F. Kurdi,et al.  An investigation of readiness assessments for e-government information system and cloud computing using Saudi Arabia as a case study , 2013 .

[60]  Zahir Irani,et al.  Technical and organisational challenges facing transactional e-government systems: an empirical study , 2005, Electron. Gov. an Int. J..

[61]  Ali M. Al-Khouri,et al.  Electronic Government in the GCC Countries , 2008 .

[62]  William H. Davidson,et al.  Beyond Re-Engineering: The Three Phases of Business Transformation , 1993, IBM Syst. J..

[63]  Hana Al-Nuaim,et al.  An Evaluation Framework for Saudi E-Government , 2011 .

[64]  Ephrem Eyob,et al.  E-government: breaking the frontiers of inefficiencies in the public sector , 2004, Electron. Gov. an Int. J..

[65]  Petter Gottschalk,et al.  E-Government Interoperability and Information Resource Integration: Frameworks for Aligned Development , 2009 .

[66]  Toni M. Somers,et al.  The impact of critical success factors across the stages of enterprise resource planning implementations , 2001, Proceedings of the 34th Annual Hawaii International Conference on System Sciences.

[67]  Petter Gottschalk,et al.  Maturity levels for interoperability in digital government , 2009, Gov. Inf. Q..

[68]  Muhammad Mustafa Kamal,et al.  Investigating the importance of factors influencing integration technologies adoption in local government authorities , 2009 .

[69]  Jennifer E. Rowley,et al.  e-Government stakeholders - Who are they and what do they want? , 2011, Int. J. Inf. Manag..

[70]  Anthony M. Cresswell,et al.  An enterprise application integration methodology for e-government , 2005, J. Enterp. Inf. Manag..

[71]  Bram Klievink,et al.  Coordinating e-government service delivery , 2010, DG.O.

[72]  Zahir Irani,et al.  E-government adoption: architecture and barriers , 2005, Bus. Process. Manag. J..

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

[74]  M. Zairi,et al.  Critical Success Factors of E-Government: A Proposed Model for E-Government Implementation , 2006, 2006 Innovations in Information Technology.

[75]  Jiri Feuerlicht,et al.  Towards e-Government Interoperability Framework , 2011, DATESO.

[76]  Herbert Kubicek,et al.  Insights from recent studies for improving interoperability frame-works , 2009 .

[77]  A. Ho.  Reinventing Local Governments and the E‐Government Initiative , 2002 .

[78]  Hernán Astudillo,et al.  Conception, development and implementation of an e-Government maturity model in public agencies , 2011, Gov. Inf. Q..

[79]  Ali M. Al-Khouri,et al.  An Innovative Approach for E-Government Transformation , 2011, ArXiv.

[80]  Karol Furdík,et al.  Integration of Government Services using Semantic Technologies , 2011, J. Theor. Appl. Electron. Commer. Res..

[81]  Akemi Takeoka Chatfield,et al.  Collaborative Governance Matters to E-Government Interoperability: An Analysis of Citizen-Centric Integrated Interoperable E-Government Implementation in Saudi Arabia , 2015 .

[82]  Hans Jochen Scholl,et al.  Interoperability in E-Government: More than Just Smart Middleware , 2005, Proceedings of the 38th Annual Hawaii International Conference on System Sciences.

[83]  Hausi A. Müller,et al.  Understanding software systems using reverse engineering technology perspectives from the Rigi project , 1993, CASCON.

[84]  Hajed Al-Rashidi,et al.  The role of internal stakeholders and influencing factors during the phases of e-government initiative implementation , 2013 .

[85]  I.E. Ezz,et al.  Inter-Organisational Collaboration towards Process Integration in the Public Sector. E-Government Collaboration in Egypt , 2006, Proceedings of the 39th Annual Hawaii International Conference on System Sciences (HICSS'06).

[86]  Marinos Themistocleous,et al.  Justifying the Decisions for EAI Adoption in LGAs: A Validated Proposition of Factors, Adoption Lifecycle Phases, Mapping and Prioritisation of Factors , 2009 .

[87]  R. Freeman.  Strategic Management: A Stakeholder Approach , 2010 .

[88]  Witold Abramowicz,et al.  Interoperability Governance for e-Government , 2008, UNISCON.

[89]  M. Kamal,et al.  An exploratory study on the role of intermediaries in delivering public services in Madinah City: Case of Saudi Arabia , 2010 .

[90]  Yogesh Kumar Dwivedi,et al.  e-Government Adoption Model (GAM): Differing service maturity levels , 2011, Gov. Inf. Q..

[91]  Leif Skiftenes,et al.  The state of G2G development: Maturity levels and current challenges , 2006 .

[92]  Sabrina Ching Yuen Luk,et al.  The impact of leadership and stakeholders on the success/failure of e-government service: Using the case study of e-stamping service in Hong Kong , 2009, Gov. Inf. Q..

[93]  Marinos Themistocleous,et al.  Developing E-Government Integrated Infrastructures: A Case Study , 2005, Proceedings of the 38th Annual Hawaii International Conference on System Sciences.

[94]  InduShobha N. Chengalur-Smith,et al.  Collaborative e-Government: impediments and benefits of information-sharing projects in the public sector , 2007, Eur. J. Inf. Syst..

[95]  Yannis Charalabidis,et al.  Implementing Interoperability Infrastructures: Issues and Challenges from the Citizens' Base Registry in Greece , 2010, 2010 43rd Hawaii International Conference on System Sciences.