Electronic Government, Vol. X, No. Y, xxxx
1
The effects of mobile network performance and
affordability on e-government development
Ibrahim Osman Adam*
Department of Accounting,
School of Business and Law,
University for Development Studies, Ghana
Email: ioadam@uds.edu.gh
*Corresponding author
Muftawu Dzang Alhassan
Department of Accounting,
School of Business,
SD Dombo University of Business and
Integrated Development Studies,
Wa, Ghana
Email: mdalhassan@ubids.edu.gh
Abstract: The increasing growth and use of information and communication
technologies (ICTs) have enabled governments around the world to rely on
electronic means to enhance participatory citizenship and governance.
Despite the dominance of literature in e-government development research,
very few studies have examined the role of mobile technology penetration
on e-government development in general and the effects of mobile
network performance and mobile phone affordability. This study explores
e-government development at the global level by examining the effects
of mobile network performance, mobile phone affordability and a
country’s regulatory environment. We relied on a model based on the
technology-organisation-environment framework and data from 106 countries
analysed using partial least squares-structural equation modelling (PLS-SEM).
Our findings show that mobile network performance and mobile phone
affordability are critical facilitators of e-government development. However,
the moderating role of the regulatory environment was not supported.
Outcomes from this study indicate the need for governments to consider the
affordability of ICTs and the availability of mobile network performance to
facilitate e-government development.
Keywords: mobile network performance; mobile affordability; e-government
development; technology-organisation-environment framework; PLS-SEM.
Reference to this paper should be made as follows: Adam, I.O. and
Alhassan, M.D. (xxxx) ‘The effects of mobile network performance and
affordability on e-government development’, Electronic Government, Vol. X,
No. Y, pp.xxx–xxx.
Biographical notes: Ibrahim Osman Adam holds a PhD in Information
Systems from the University of Ghana Business School. He holds a first-class
Bachelor’s in Business Administration (Accounting Option) from the
University of Ghana, MSc in Development Management from London School
Copyright © 20XX Inderscience Enterprises Ltd.
Comment [H1]: Author: Please confirm
if I.O. Adam is the corresponding author.
2
I.O. Adam and M.D. Alhassan
of Economics and Political Science (LSE), UK, and another MSc in Applied
Informatics from Henley Business School, University of Reading, UK. He is a
Chartered Accountant and member of the Institute of Chartered Accountants,
Ghana. He teaches management information systems, accounting information
systems and computer applications in management both at the undergraduate
and postgraduate levels at the School of Business and Law, University for
Development Studies, Ghana. His research interest are information systems in
higher education, cloud computing and ICT4D.
Muftawu Dzang Alhassan holds an MPhil in Management Information Systems
from the University of Ghana Business School. He also holds a Bachelor’s in
Commerce with a major in Accounting from the University for Development
Studies, Ghana. He is an Assistant Lecturer at the SD Dombo University for
Business and Integrated Business Studies, Wa, Ghana. He is currently a GEM
PhD Scholar in Business Management and Administration at the University of
Stellenbosch Business School. His research interest includes digital resilience,
financial technologies, e-commerce, the sharing economy and ICT4D.
This paper is a revised and expanded version of a paper entitled [title]
presented at [name, location and date of conference].
1
Introduction
The rapid development of information and communication technologies (ICTs) has been
key to the growth of electronic government (e-government) around the globe (Bannister
and Grönlund, 2017; Grönlund and Horan, 2005). This has led to the age of
citizen-centric delivery of e-government services (Al-sobhi et al., 2010; Sánchez-Torres
et al., 2021). E-government is the use of ICTs and other electronic devices to offer
improved public services to individuals, businesses and the public (Gomes and Laureano,
2018). E-government services are highly beneficial to citizens, businesses, and the
government and have brought citizens closer to their governments (Bélanger and Carter,
2012; Srivastava and Teo, 2007). E-government initiatives improve transparency,
streamline interactions between citizens and the government and enhance the
effectiveness and efficiency of public organisations (Karunasena and Deng, 2012; Kurfali
et al., 2017).
Consequently, an increasing number of countries around the globe have introduced
e-government initiatives to reap these benefits (Hofmann et al., 2012). Through
e-government, real value is created for citizens through easy and convenient access to
public services, expanding the reach of these services, eliminating distance and ultimately
saving time and cash (Abdulla and Alshare, 2008). E-government is an effective tool that
creates public value for citizens whilst reducing corruption (Adam, 2020a; Krishnan and
Teo, 2013). According to a UN-Report (2010), e-government development in a country
constitutes the level of functional sophistication of its e-government websites. Although
countries have invested heavily in e-government development, the intended benefits of
e-government continue to be an ‘elusive vision’ for many countries worldwide (Krishnan
et al., 2012).
This has therefore triggered empirical investigations into the enablers and constraints
of e-government development or adoption (Elenezi et al., 2017; Rana et al., 2015;
Comment [H2]: Author: If a previous
version of your paper has originally been
presented at a conference please complete
the statement to this effect or delete if not
applicable.
The effects of mobile network performance and affordability
3
Siriluck, 2009). Whilst the key role of a country’s infrastructure on e-government
development is well researched (Krishnan et al., 2012; Glyptis et al., 2020; Srivastava
and Teo, 2007), these studies presents a narrow view of ICT infrastructure as primarily
the collection of hardware and software and neglecting the effect of high network
performance on e-government development. The presence of poor network performance
may result in citizens and businesses facing challenges in accessing, sharing, and
participating in e-government initiatives and thus, diminish e-government development
and uptake.
Whilst the presence of ICT infrastructure is key to citizens use of technology,
AlSayegh et al. (2019) contend that complementing ICT infrastructure with access to
ICTs will enable citizens to acquire firsthand information about government services and
initiatives, therefore, enhancing electronic participation (e-participation).
The provision of access to ICTs alone may not encourage citizens adoption of
e-government initiatives. Governments need to implement policies aimed at providing
citizens with affordable access to ICTs (Ferreira et al., 2016). If ICTs are affordable,
individuals will be able to easily purchase them and this can promote increased adoption
and use (Ferreira et al., 2016). However, there is no empirical evidence on the
relationship between the affordability of ICTs and e-government development.
Given that prior research points out that the increasing use of ICTs has generated
issues related to intellectual property, cyber fraud, privacy and security (Khan and
Krishnan, 2019; Liang and Xue, 2009), it is imperative to examine the moderating effects
of the regulatory environment which is responsible for developing and implementing ICT
laws that help resolve or reduce these issues. The main objective of this study will be to
examine the linkages between mobile network performance, affordability, the regulatory
environment and e-government development. The following research questions will
enable us to achieve this objective:
1
What are the effects of mobile network performance and mobile affordability on
e-government development?
2
What are the moderating effects of the regulatory environment on e-government
development?
The rest of this paper is structured as follows. We discuss the study’s guiding theory
and formulate our hypotheses based on evidence from the literature in Section 2 and
Section 3. In Section 4, we present the methodology and test our formulated hypotheses
using data from 106 countries worldwide. We present the discussion of our research
findings in Section 5 and Section 6 and end with the conclusions, contribution, and
recommendations for future works in Section 7.
2
Comment [H3]: Author: Please confirm
if this is correct.
Technology-organisation-environment framework
In this study, the technology-organisation-environment (TOE) framework was used. The
theory developed by Tornatzky and Fleischer (1990) is an organisational-level theory that
shows that three key elements of an organisation’s context influence its adoption
decisions. These elements are: the technological, organisational and environmental
contexts.
Comment [H4]: Author: Please provide
full reference or delete from the text if not
required.
4
I.O. Adam and M.D. Alhassan
The technological context constitutes an array of technologies available to the
organisation for adoption and use (Baker, 2012). These can be both the technologies
present on the market and the equipment currently available to the firm. The decision to
adopt and use technological innovations depends not just on what is available on the
market, but also on how the technology blends with the other technologies already
present in the organisation (Tornatzky and Fleischer, 1990). The organisational context
represents the internal factors of an organisation that affects the adoption and
implementation of technology innovations. These include the number of slack resources,
the characteristics, and resources of the firm, the firm size, etc. (Tornatzky and Fleischer,
1990). The final context; the environmental context constitutes the presence/absence
of technology service providers, the structure of the industry, and the regulatory
environment.
Although the TOE framework has been predominately used by prior studies to
explore contexts relating to specific countries (Elmansor et al., 2017; Olumoye and
Govender, 2018), in recent years, there has been increasing reliance on the framework by
e-government studies at the global level (Adam, 2020b; Krishnan et al., 2017). This is
attributable to the fact that compared to other theories such as the technology acceptance
model (TAM), and the unified theory of acceptance and use of technology (UTAUT), the
TOE framework provides a comprehensive model that enables researchers to explore
how technological, organisational and environmental contexts influence the adoption of
technological innovations (Baker, 2012).
Following these past studies, we rely on the TOE framework and represent the
technological context in our study as mobile network performance and e-government.
This is because prior literature has relied on IT infrastructure and e-government as
technological resources (Gao and Lee, 2017; Naranjo-zolotov et al., 2019). Also, ICT
regulation defined in this study as the laws regulating the use of ICTs is represented by
the environmental context.
3
Hypotheses formulation
3.1 Relating mobile network performance and e-government development
ICT infrastructure can be described as the collection of physical technological resources,
i.e., technological services across firms and shared technology which allows for a
foundation of ICT-related services (Pudjianto et al., 2011). Countries with advanced and
sophisticated ICT infrastructure tend to enhance their chances of adopting e-government
(Glyptis et al., 2020; Krishnan et al., 2017; Razak et al., 2017). For instance, on
businesses adoption of e-government in Jordan, it was found that there is a significant
relationship between ICT infrastructure and e-government adoption by businesses
(Al-zoubi et al., 2011) confirming that the existence of a well-developed technological
infrastructure enhances the adoption of e-government initiatives. However, evidence in
this area has largely viewed ICT infrastructure as a combination of sophisticated physical
technology resources (mainly hardware and software) (Elmansor et al., 2017; Nugroho,
2015) with less emphasis on telecommunication network performance. Providing the
needed ICT hardware infrastructure without enhancing network performance might
hamper the adoption of e-government. The presence of poor network performance means
citizens and businesses will have challenges in accessing, sharing, and participating in
Comment [H5]: Author: Please provide
full reference or delete from the text if not
required.
Comment [H6]: Author: Please provide
full reference or delete from the text if not
required.
Comment [H7]: Author: Please provide
full reference or delete from the text if not
required.
Comment [H8]: Author: Please provide
full reference or delete from the text if not
required.
The effects of mobile network performance and affordability
5
e-government initiatives and thus, shackle e-government development. This leads us to
the hypothesis:
H1
The level of mobile network performance in a country is positively associated with
its e-government development.
3.2 Relating mobile affordability and e-government development
Creating affordable access to ICTs positively influences the adoption of e-government at
the global level. Pau (2008) refers to affordability as the challenge that individuals/firms
face in balancing the cost of its actual or potential communications and media cost, on
one hand, and the other imposed expenditures on the other within the constraints of their
income. The literature on technology adoption identifies cost as a roadblock to
technology adoption (Duncan, 2013; Yun et al., 2011). For instance, the high cost of
handset prices, high mobile tariffs, etc., in developing countries has been a major setback
in the adoption of several ICTs (Bisimwa et al., 2018; Kamal and Hackney, 2012).
Enabling affordable access to ICTs may empower individuals to seek ways to develop
and enhance their digital skills so as bridge the digital divide (Newman et al., 2017).
Literature in the area of e-government research has failed to examine the effects of
mobile affordability on the adoption of e-government systems. Although literature
identifies ICT infrastructure as a necessary condition for e-government development both
at the country and global level (Krishnan et al., 2012; Mikalef and Giannakos, 2018;
Sabani et al., 2018). Countries must develop initiatives that help citizens easily acquire
and use ICTs (Kayisire and Wei, 2016). A reduction in handset prices, mobile tariffs,
among others may go a long way to enhance the adoption of e-government:
H2
Mobile affordability in a country is positively associated with its e-government
development.
3.3 Relating mobile network performance and regulatory environment
Nikravesh et al. (2014) point out that the presence of poor visibility into network
performance for devices may be a barrier to the adoption of various ICTs. However,
network performance depends on several factors which include, signal strength, carrier,
geographical location and time, etc. (Nikravesh et al., 2014). In this study, we refer to
network performance as the service quality of a network as viewed by the user. Prior
studies highlight the importance of sufficient ICT infrastructure on the adoption of
various ICTs (Joseph and Olugbara, 2018; Noor et al., 2019). For instance, Kayisire and
Wei (2016) in their study highlight the key role of ICT infrastructure in the adoption of
ICTs in Africa. ICT adoption in developing countries especially in Africa is experiencing
increasing growth (Kayisire and Wei, 2016) as governments around the continent are
putting in more efforts to increase mobile network coverage and performance within their
countries (Billon et al., 2009). Therefore, the existence of high network performance will
mean that individuals will be able to access online services at a much higher speed. This
may convince more users to access online services especially in developing countries
where the network performance is poor. As a result, the need for appropriate regulatory
bodies to develop ICT laws that protect the safety of users online. Hence, the hypothesis:
6
H3
I.O. Adam and M.D. Alhassan
The level of mobile network performance in a country is positively associated with
its regulatory environment.
3.4 Relating mobile affordability and the regulatory environment
Evidence in the literature posits that countries make sustained efforts to ensure that
citizens enjoy affordable access to ICTs. For instance, Raghupathi and Wu (2011) argue
that the use of ICTs allows citizens to gain access to various kinds of government
information. Adam (2020a) further contends that citizens’ access to government
information may lead to reduced levels of corruption especially in Africa where
corruption levels are high. Thus, creating affordable access to ICTs will empower citizens
with tools that will help them access and share government information. This will enable
participatory governance, i.e., citizens will be able to put the government on its toes and
also get involved in some decision-making policies (Sabani et al., 2018).
Creating affordable access comes with its challenges, for example, enabling
affordable access to ICTs will mean more individuals/firms will be able to afford these
ICTs. Hence, an increase in the number of online users. The use of ICTs has been
credited with numerous scandals, fraudulent activities, intellectual property issues, etc.
(Liang and Xue, 2009). Therefore, the need for regulatory agencies to develop ICT laws
to ensure the safety of users online. It is in this direction, we aim to fill the gap in
literature via the hypothesis:
H4
The level of mobile affordability in a country is positively associated with its
regulatory environment.
3.5 Relating the regulatory environment and e-government development
Previous literature on the adoption of technology and diffusion has found environmental
factors as antecedents of IT assimilation (Khan and Krishnan, 2019; Wallsten, 2005).
In the area of e-government research, studies have found a positive relationship
between the regulatory environment and e-government development (Abdalla, 2012;
Von Haldenwang, 2004; Olumoye and Govender, 2018). For example, Pudjianto et al.
(2011) show that the regulations in the form of an appropriate institutional regulatory
framework are a significant factor that explains e-government assimilation in Indonesia.
Pudjianto et al. (2011) further define the regulatory environment as incorporating
government regulations, laws, and policies that firms must comply with.
Nevertheless, the use of e-government will lead to information acquisition, storing,
and sharing among citizens, businesses and the government (Alawadhi, 2019; Samuel
et al., 2020). Hence, a lot of information about people and businesses will be available
online, and thus, the need to develop ICT regulations that will address a range of issues
relating to the use of e-government. Furthermore, with the appropriate ICT regulation in
place, it may be difficult for firms to abuse the use of e-government systems. This will
encourage the use of e-government systems and services. Based on this, we hypothesise
that:
H5
The level of the regulatory environment in a country is positively associated with its
e-government development.
7
The effects of mobile network performance and affordability
Figure 1
Table 1
SN
1
a
b
Research model
Constructs, measurement items and sources of data
Constructs
Indicators
Sources of data
Mobile network
performance
Mobile download speed
Mobile Connectivity
Index Report (2018)
c
2
a
Mobile latencies
Mobile affordability
b
3
4
Mobile upload speed
Mobile tariffs
Handset prices
c
Taxation
d
Inequality
a
Regulation
Regulatory quality
b
Ease of doing business
c
Legal framework’s adaptability to
digital business models
d
Social safety net protection
e
ICT regulatory environment
a
E-government
Online service component
b
Telecommunication infrastructure
component
c
Human capital component
Network Readiness
Index Report (2018)
UN E-Government
Development Survey
(2018)
8
4
I.O. Adam and M.D. Alhassan
Research methodology
In this study, we relied on data from three archival sources, namely: the Mobile
Connectivity Index (MCI) 2018, the Network Readiness Index (NRI) 2018 (Dutta and
Lanvin, 2019) and the United Nations E-Government Development Index 2018. The
three latent constructs in our model were mobile network performance, mobile
affordability, regulatory environment and e-government development. The indicators that
measure these constructs and their sources are provided in detail in Table 1.
Our dependence on these sources of data is attributed to the time constraint as well as
limited resources to collect data from 106 countries worldwide. However, using these
sources of data was an effective way to carry out this study since past literature has used
and recommended these sources (Adam et al., 2020; Krishnan and Teo, 2013; Srivastava
et al., 2006). Also, with our unit of analysis targeted at the global level to ensure
comprehensive coverage of countries, using archival sources of data enables the
generalisability of findings.
5
Data analysis and results
The data analysis was done following partial least squares-structural equation modelling
(PLS-SEM). The choice was informed by the use of secondary data sources and the
robustness of PLS-SEM to handle skewed sample distribution and smaller sample sizes
as compared with other methods such as AMOS and LISREL (Hair et al., 2011, 2019).
The measurement and structural model analysis are shown in Section 6.1 and Section 6.2,
respectively.
5.1 Measurement model assessment
The results from the assessment of the measurement model are shown in Tables 2, 3
and 4. The measurement model shows the fit between the model and the data. We
evaluated the measurement model using four main criteria as suggested by Hair et al.
(2019) and Urbach and Ahlemann (2010). These are indicator loadings, internal
consistency reliability, convergent validity and discriminant validity. Item loadings were
monitored to ensure indicator reliability. The measurement model showed a good fit as
most of the item loadings scored greater than 0.708 (Hair et al., 2019).
For internal consistency reliability, Cronbach’s alpha and composite reliability (CR)
were used. Cronbach’s alpha and CR values of at least 0.70 are recommended as it
demonstrates adequate internal consistency reliability (Fornell and Larcker, 1981). To
achieve convergent validity, the average variance extracted (AVE) was used. The AVE
value for a construct must go above the threshold of 0.50. AVE values are shown in the
diagonals of Table 2. AVE values for all the constructs in the model are above the 0.50
threshold.
In terms of discriminant validity, two criteria were used, namely Fornell and Larcker
(1981) and cross-loadings. To evaluate discriminant validity via the Fornell and Larcker
(1981) criteria, we affirmed that the square root of the AVE for each construct exceeded
the bivariate correlations between the other constructs. Table 3 confirms that the square
root of the AVE for each construct exceeds the bivariate correlations between the other
constructs and thus, it can be inferred that discriminant validity has been met. In addition
9
The effects of mobile network performance and affordability
to the Fornell and Larcker (1981) criteria, discriminant validity was assessed using the
cross-loadings criteria (Chin, 1998). To determine the presence of discriminant validity,
the loadings of items on the assigned constructs must be higher than for any other
construct. Cross-loading values presented in Table 4, show that item loadings load higher
for their assigned construct than for any other construct.
Table 2
Reliability and validity
Construct
Composite reliability
Cronbach’s alpha ()
Regulatory environment
0.8960
0.8754
Mobile affordability
0.9295
0.8483
E-government
0.9313
0.8888
Mobile network performance
0.9241
0.8743
Table 3
Discriminant validity
Regulatory
environment
Construct
Regulatory environment
Mobile
affordability
E-government
0.6362
Mobile affordability
0.0143
0.8683
E-government
0.0165
0.7165
0.8191
Mobile network performance
0.0053
0.5246
0.6539
Table 4
Mobile
network
performance
0.8036
Cross-loadings
Regulatory
environment
Mobile
affordability
E-government
Mobile
network
performance
Mobile download speeds
0.1190
0.7003
0.7746
0.9451
Mobile upload speeds
0.0779
0.6861
0.7594
0.9498
Mobile latencies
–0.0150
0.5507
0.6320
0.7845
Mobile tariffs
0.1049
0.9323
0.7926
0.6900
Handset prices
0.1184
0.9313
0.7848
0.6597
Regulatory quality
0.8725
0.0610
0.0369
0.0273
Indicator
Ease of doing business
0.7745
0.0276
0.0403
0.0353
Legal framework’s adaptability
to digital business models
0.7308
0.0531
–0.0240
–0.0346
E-commerce legislation
0.6588
0.0868
0.0738
–0.0056
Social safety net protection
0.9230
0.1371
0.1628
0.1086
Online service component
0.0951
0.7380
0.8569
0.6985
Telecomm. infrastructure
component
0.1674
0.8091
0.9407
0.7580
Human capital component
0.0823
0.7490
0.9156
0.7377
10
Figure 2
I.O. Adam and M.D. Alhassan
PLS results
Note: Asterisk (*) shows significant relationships.
Mobile network performance -> regulatory environment
Mobile affordability -> regulatory environment
Regulatory environment -> e-government
H3
H4
H5
0.0331
0.1405
–0.0286
Mobile affordability -> e-government
0.4124
0.5438
Mobile network performance -> e-government
H2
Standard
beta
H1
Effect
0.0617
0.1674
0.1709
0.0621
0.0544
Standard
error
0.5357
0.8391
–0.1676
8.7600
7.5753
t-value
Rejected
Rejected
Rejected
Accepted
Accepted
Interpretation
–0.1563
–0.3279
–0.4934
0.3698
0.2749
95% CI LL
0.1707
0.5094
0.4102
0.6837
0.5552
95% CI UL
Table 5
Hypotheses
The effects of mobile network performance and affordability
Results for direct hypotheses
11
12
I.O. Adam and M.D. Alhassan
5.2 Structural model assessment
The final step in analysing data in PLS-SEM delves into the analysis of the structural
model by assessing the path significance, the explanatory power of the research model,
and the goodness of fit (GOF) (Hair et al., 2019). As shown in Figure 2 and Tables 5
and 6, the results affirm only Hypotheses H1 and H2. Furthermore, the model explained
1.5% of the regulatory environment and 79.8% of e-government. In assessing the GOF,
the standardised root mean squared residual (SRMR) (Henseler et al., 2016) criteria were
used. SRMR values of not more than 0.08 are regarded as sufficient as they suggest the
GOF. As presented in Table 7, the SRMR value of 0.0670 is below 0.08, and therefore, it
can be inferred that the GOF has been achieved.
Table 6
Results for indirect hypotheses
Standard Standard
beta
error
Effect
t-value
Interpretation
95%
CI LL
95%
CI UL
Mobile affordability
-> e-government
0.0046
0.0120
0.3858
Rejected
–0.0300 0.0463
Mobile network performance
-> e-government
–0.0009
0.0113
–0.0836
Rejected
–0.0253 0.0534
Table 7
Goodness of fit
SRMR
6
Value
HI95
0.0670
0.1483
Discussion
This section discusses the results that emerged from our analysis of data. First, the level
of mobile network performance in a country significantly contributes to its e-government
development. This means that the availability of robust, reliable, and speedy network
performance in a country will facilitate e-government development. The literature has
mainly argued that the presence of a robust, reliable, and sound ICT infrastructure
promotes e-government development (Krishnan et al., 2012; Srivastava and Teo, 2006,
2007). For instance results from the study of Srivastava and Teo (2007) on the facilitators
of e-government development in 115 countries globally highlights the essence of a
country’s sound ICT infrastructure on enhancing e-government development. This
confirms that generally, the existence of a well-developed ICT infrastructure as well as a
conducive technological environment is key to the development of e-government
(Von Haldenwang, 2004). However, our findings provide specific insight that the high
performance of a country’s mobile network facilitates e-government development at the
global level.
Second, mobile affordability in a country was found to be positively associated with
its e-government development. To reach citizens and bridge the digital divide (Alomari,
2018), governments must ensure the affordability of ICTs through low mobile tariffs, low
handset prices, etc. Unlike developed countries, developing countries are faced with
issues of a higher cost of technology use and as a result, induce their reluctance to adopt
various technologies (Bisimwa et al., 2018; Verkijika and De Wet, 2018). Our results
The effects of mobile network performance and affordability
13
suggest that to enhance e-government development at the national level, governments
should make efforts to provide their citizens with affordable access to ICTs. If ICTs are
affordable, individuals will adopt and use them and thus, e-government development may
be enhanced. Our findings augment the literature examining the linkages between mobile
affordability and e-government development which has been underexplored.
Third, our results did not support the positive association between mobile network
performance and the regulatory environment. With limited studies examining this
relationship, our findings provide key answers to fill this gap. Findings indicate that high
mobile network performance will not result in the need for regulatory agencies to develop
ICT laws to regulate the use of ICTs. Furthermore, results suggest that the level of mobile
affordability in a country has no impact on e-government development. Notwithstanding,
studies such as that of Khan and Krishnan (2019) and Liang and Xue (2009) highlight
increases in scandals and fraudulent activities that have emanated from the increase in the
use of ICTs.
Khan and Krishnan (2019) for example, argue that the increased use of ICTs calls
necessitates the promulgation of ICT laws or regulations to regulate the use of these ICTs
and ensure individuals privacy and security online. Outcomes from this study, however,
suggest that creating affordable access to ICTs will not result in the need for regulatory
bodies to develop ICT laws. We attribute this to the fact that in developing countries
where the level of individual digital skills is low (Idoughi and Abdelhakim, 2018),
providing affordable access to ICTs may not lead to an increase in the adoption and use
of ICTs and subsequently, the need for ICT laws. Therefore, providing affordable access
to ICTs may be accompanied by training and education on the use of ICTs. This may
therefore increase the use of ICTs and subsequently the need to develop ICT laws to
ensure people’s safety online.
While some empirical studies (Von Haldenwang, 2004; Olumoye and Govender,
2018) indicate a positive impact of the regulatory environment on e-government
development especially at the single country level context, very few studies (Srivastava
and Teo, 2007) show that at the global level, a country’s national environment (i.e.,
institutional and macroeconomic) is not a significant factor for the development of
e-government. The findings from this study similarly show no association between a
country’s regulatory environment and e-government development. Our results indicate
that the presence of a robust regulatory environment may lead to lesser e-government
development. A possible explanation for this result may be that in countries especially
developed ones where there is an existence of a well-established regulatory environment,
they tend to have much faith in their regulatory systems. Therefore, results in less
willingness to change to e-government (Srivastava and Teo, 2007).
Finally, our results show no support for the mediating effects of the regulatory
environment. This means the presence of the regulatory environment does not determine
the relationship between mobile network performance and e-government development as
well as the relationship between mobile affordability and e-government development.
This can be attributed to the fact that results for H5 showed no relationship between a
country’s regulatory environment and e-government development.
14
7
I.O. Adam and M.D. Alhassan
Conclusions, implications and future research
The study aimed to examine the relationship between mobile network performance,
affordability, the regulatory environment, and e-government development at the global
level. To achieve this aim, the study sought to answer two research questions. First, ‘what
are the effects of mobile network performance and mobile affordability on e-government
development?’ Results from this study revealed the positive effects of mobile network
performance and affordability on e-government development. The moderating effect of
the regulatory environment on e-government development was not significant answering
the second research question ‘what are the mediating effects of the regulatory
environment on e-government development?’
The results from our study contribute to research in four ways. First, most empirical
studies on e-government development have been conducted in a single country context
with few empirical studies carried out in the global context. Second, studies on
e-government development at both the single country and global level have failed to
examine the effects of mobile network performance and mobile affordability as
facilitators of e-government development. Furthermore, the mediating effects of the
regulatory environment on e-government development have been underexplored. The use
of archival sources of data for 106 countries enables the generalisation of findings to the
global level.
From the standpoint of practice, outcomes from this study revealed that mobile
network performance and mobile affordability have significant influences on
e-government development. This brings to governments’ attention the need to consider
the affordability of ICTs and the availability of mobile network performance as salient
facilitators of e-government development. Also, findings from this study bring the need
for governments to consider e-government as an avenue to reach citizens who are on the
other side of the digital divide.
We recommend future studies rely on our secondary data sources to examine
e-government development in detail to provide results that can be generalisable to the
masses. Second, future studies may extend our cross-sectional study by conducting panel
studies when additional data becomes readily available.
References
Abdalla, S. (2012) An E-Government Adoption Framework for Developing Countries: A Case
Study from Sudan, Vol. 66.
Abdulla, M. and Alshare, K. (2008) ‘A path analytic model and measurement of the business
value of e-government: an international perspective’, International Journal of Information
Management, Vol. 28, pp.524–535 [online] https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijinfomgt.2006.10.004.
Adam, I.O. (2020a) ‘Examining e-government development effects on corruption in Africa:
the mediating effects of ICT development and institutional quality’, Technology in Society,
October, Vol. 61, p.101245 [online] https://doi.org/10.1016/j.techsoc.2020.101245.
Adam, I.O. (2020b) ‘ICT development, e-government development, and economic development:
does institutional quality matter?’, Information Technologies & International Development,
Vol. 16, pp.1–19.
Adam, I.O., Alhassan, M.D. and Afriyie, Y. (2020) ‘An analysis of the effect of ICT access, human
resource development and regulatory environment on B2C e-commerce’, Technology Analysis
& Strategic Management, pp.1–16 [online] https://doi.org/10.1080/09537325.2020.1714579.
Comment [H9]: Author: Please provide
the full reference.
Comment [H10]: Author: Please
provide the issue number.
The effects of mobile network performance and affordability
15
Alam, K. and Imran, S. (2015) ‘The digital divide and social inclusion among refugee migrants:
a case in regional Australia’, Information Technology and People, Vol. 28, No. 2, pp.344–365
[online] https://doi.org/10.1108/ITP-04-2014-0083.
Alawadhi, S. (2019) ‘A proposed model of trust factors for e-government adoption and civic
engagement’, Proceedings of the 52nd Hawaii International Conference on System Sciences,
pp.3161–3170.
Almukhlifi, A. (2018) ‘E-government adoption in Saudi Arabia: the moderation effect of Wastta’,
International Conference on Information Resources Management (CONF-IRM).
Alomari, M.K. (2018) ‘Mobile government adoption: citizen-centric approach’, Twenty-Fourth
Americas Conference on Information Systems, pp.1–5.
AlSayegh, A., Hossan, C. and Slade, B. (2019) ‘Radical improvement of e-government services in
Dubai’, International Journal of Services, Technology and Management, Vol. 25, No. 1,
pp.53–67 [online] https://doi.org/10.1504/IJSTM.2019.096613.
Al-sobhi, F., Weerakkody, V. and Kamal, M.M. (2010) ‘An exploratory study on the role of
intermediaries in delivering public services in Madinah City case of Saudi Arabia’,
Transforming Government: People, Process and Policy, pp.14–36 [online] https://doi.org/
10.1108/17506161011028786.
Al-zoubi, M., Sam, T.L. and Eam, L.H. (2011) ‘E-government adoption among businesses in
Jordan’, Academic Research International, Vol. 1, No. 1, pp.141–156.
Aranyossy, M. (2018) ‘Citizen adoption of e-government services – evidence from Hungary’,
31st Bled EConference: Digital Transformation: Meeting the Challenges, BLED 2018,
pp.27–46 [online] https://doi.org/10.18690/978-961-286-170-4.3.
Baker, J. (2012) ‘The technology-organization-environment framework’, in Information Systems
Theory: Explaining and Predicting Our Digital Society [online] https://doi.org/10.1007/978-14419-6108-2.
Bannister, F. and Grönlund, Å. (2017) ‘Information technology and government research: a brief
history’, Proceedings of the 50th Hawaii International Conference on System Sciences,
pp.2943–2952.
Bélanger, F. and Carter, L. (2012) ‘Digitizing government interactions with constituents:
an historical review of e-government research in information systems’, Journal of the
Association for Information Systems, Vol. 13, No. 5, pp.363–394 [online] https://doi.org/
10.17705/1jais.00295.
Billon, M., Marco, R. and Lera-Lopez, F. (2009) ‘Disparities in ICT adoption: a multidimensional
approach to study the cross-country digital divide’, Telecommunications Policy, Vol. 33,
Nos. 10–11, pp.596–610 [online] https://doi.org/10.1016/j.telpol.2009.08.006.
Bisimwa, K., Brown, I. and Johnston, K. (2018) ‘Mobile phones use by urban refugees in
South Africa: opportunities and challenges’, Proceedings of the 51st Hawaii International
Conference on System Sciences.
Chin, W.W. (1998) ‘The partial least squares approach to structural equation modeling’,
in Marcoudides, G.A. (Ed.): Modern Methods for Business Research, Lawrence Erlbaum
Associates.
Distel, B. and Ogonek, N. (2016) ‘To adopt or not to adopt: a literature review on barriers to
citizens’ adoption of e-government services’, ECIS 2016 Proceedings.
Duncan, J. (2013) ‘Mobile network society? Affordability and mobile phone usage in
Grahamstown East’, South African Journal for Communication Theory and Research, Vol. 39,
No. 1, pp.35–52 [online] https://doi.org/10.1080/02500167.2013.766224.
Dutta, S. and Lanvin, B. (2019) The Network Readiness Index 2019: Towards a Future-Ready
Society.
Elenezi, H., Tarhini, A., Masa’deh, R., Alalwan, A. and Al-Qirim, N. (2017) ‘Factors affecting
the adoption of e-government in Kuwait: a qualitative study’, Electronic Journal of
E-Government, Vol. 15, No. 2, pp.84–102.
Comment [H11]: Author: Please cite
the reference in the text or delete from the
list if not required.
Comment [H12]: Author: Please cite
the reference in the text or delete from the
list if not required.
Comment [H13]: Author: Please cite
the reference in the text or delete from the
list if not required.
Comment [H14]: Author: Please
provide the publisher and the place of
publication.
Comment [H15]: Author: Please
provide the place of publication.
Comment [H16]: Author: Please cite
the reference in the text or delete from the
list if not required.
Comment [H17]: Author: Please
provide the full reference.
16
I.O. Adam and M.D. Alhassan
Elmansor, M.M., Atan, H. and Ali, A. (2017) ‘Factors affecting e-government adoption by citizens
in Libya: a conceptual framework’, I-Manager’s Journal on Information Technology, Vol. 6,
No. 4, p.1 [online] https://doi.org/10.26634/jit.6.4.13845.
Ferreira, S.M., Sayago, S. and Blat, J. (2016) ‘Going beyond telecenters to foster the digital
inclusion of older people in Brazil: lessons learned from a rapid ethnographical study’,
Information Technology for Development, Vol. 22, pp.26–46 [online] https://doi.org/10.1080/
02681102.2015.1091974.
Fornell, C. and Larcker, D.F. (1981) ‘Evaluating structural equation models with unobservable
variables and measurement error’, Journal of Marketing Research, Vol. 18, No. 1, pp.39–50.
Glyptis, L., Christofi, M., Vrontis, D., Giudice, M.D., Dimitriou, S. and Michael, P. (2020)
‘E-government implementation challenges in small countries: the project manager’s
perspective’, Technological Forecasting and Social Change, December 2019, Vol. 152
[online] https://doi.org/10.1016/j.techfore.2019.119880.
Gomes, J.P.F. and Laureano, R.M. (2018) ‘Impacts of electronic public procurement in the
Portuguese construction sector: several years after implementation’, in Handbook of Research
on Modernization and Accountability in Public Sector Management, pp.363–383, IGI Global.
Grönlund, Å. and Horan, T.A. (2005) ‘Introducing e-Gov: history, definitions, and issues’,
Communications of the Association for Information Systems, Vol. 15, pp.713–729 [online]
https://doi.org/10.17705/1CAIS.01539.
Hair, J.F., Ringle, C.M. and Sarstedt, M. (2011) ‘PLS-SEM: indeed a silver bullet’, Journal of
Marketing Theory and Practice, Vol. 19, No. 2, pp.139–151 [online] https://doi.org/10.2753/
MTP1069-6679190202.
Hair, J.F., Risher, J.J., Sarstedt, M. and Ringle, C.M. (2019) ‘When to use and how to report the
results of PLS-SEM’, European Business Review, December, Vol. 31 [online] https://doi.org/
10.1108/EBR-11-2018-0203.
Heeks, R. (2003) Most eGovernment-for-development Projects Fail: How Can Risks be Reduced?,
Institute for Development Policy and Management, University of Manchester, Manchester.
Henseler, J., Hubona, G. and Ray, P.A. (2016) ‘Using PLS path modeling in new technology
research: updated guidelines’, Industrial Management and Data Systems, Vol. 116, No. 1,
pp.2–20 [online] https://doi.org/10.1108/IMDS-09-2015-0382.
Hofmann, S., Räckers, M. and Becker, J. (2012) ‘Identifying factors of e-government acceptance –
a literature review’, Thirty Third International Conference on Information Systems, pp.1–19.
Ibrahim, O.A. and Zakaria, N.H. (2015) ‘Towards the development of an adoption model for
e-government services in developing countries for e-government services in developing’,
Pacific Asia Conference on Information Systems (PACIS).
Idoughi, D. and Abdelhakim, D. (2018) ‘Developing countries e-government services evaluation
identifying and testing antecedents of satisfaction case of Algeria’, International Journal of
Electronic Government Research, Vol. 14, No. 1 [online] https://doi.org/10.4018/IJEGR.
2018010104.
Joseph, S. and Olugbara, O.O. (2018) ‘Evaluation of municipal e-government readiness using
structural equation modelling technique’, The Journal for Transdisciplinary Research in
Southern Africa, Vol. 14, No. 1, pp.1–10 [online] https://doi.org/10.4102/td.v14i1.356.
Kamal, M.M. and Hackney, R. (2012) ‘Inhibiting factors for e-government adoption: the Pakistan
context’, Pacific Asia Conference on Information Systems (PACIS).
Karunasena, K. and Deng, H. (2012) ‘Critical factors for evaluating the public value of
e-government in Sri Lanka’, Government Information Quarterly, Vol. 29, No. 1, pp.76–84
[online] https://doi.org/10.1016/j.giq.2011.04.005.
Kayisire, D. and Wei, J. (2016) ‘ICT adoption and usage in Africa: towards an efficiency
assessment’, Information Technology for Development, Vol. 1102 [online] https://doi.org/
10.1080/02681102.2015.1081862.
Khan, A. and Krishnan, S. (2019) ICT Unbounded, Social Impact of Bright ICT Adoption, Vol. 558
[online] https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-20671-0.
Comment [H18]: Author: Please
provide the place of publication.
Comment [H19]: Author: Please cite
the reference in the text or delete from the
list if not required.
Comment [H20]: Author: Please cite
the reference in the text or delete from the
list if not required.
The effects of mobile network performance and affordability
17
Kiecolt, K.J. and Nathan, L.E. (1985) Secondary Analysis of Survey Data, Sage, Beverly Hills, CA.
Kleine, D. (2013) Technologies of Choice? ICTs, Development, and the Capabilities Approach,
MIT Press, Cambridge, MA.
Krishnan, S. and Teo, T.S.H. (2013) ‘Moderating effects of governance on information
infrastructure and e-government development’, Journal of the American Society for
Information Science and Technology, July, Vol. 64, pp.1852–1863 [online] https://doi.org/
10.1002/asi.
Krishnan, S., Teo, T.S.H. and Lim, V.K.G. (2012) ‘Contextual factors, e-participation, and
e-government development: testing a multiple-mediation model’, Pacific Asia Conference on
Information Systems, Association for Information Systems AIS Electronic Library (AISeL).
Krishnan, S., Teo, T.S.H. and Lymm, J. (2017) ‘Determinants of electronic participation and
electronic government maturity: insights from cross-country data’, International Journal of
Information Management, Vol. 37, No. 4, pp.297–312 [online] https://doi.org/10.1016/
j.ijinfomgt.2017.03.002.
Kurfali, M., Arifoğlu, A., Tokdemir, G. and Paçin, Y. (2017) ‘Adoption of e-government services
in Turkey’, Computers in Human Behavior, Vol. 16, pp.8–178.
Liang, H. and Xue, Y. (2009) ‘Avoidance of information technology threats: a theoretical
perspective’, Management Information Systems Research Center, Vol. 33, No. 1, pp.71–90.
Mikalef, P. and Giannakos, M.N. (2018) ‘Combining system success factors with trust to explain
e-government adoption using fsQCA’, Twenty-Fourth Americas Conference on Information
Systems, pp.1–10.
Newman, L., Browne-Yung, K., Raghavendra, P., Wood, D. and Grace, E. (2017) ‘Applying a
critical approach to investigate barriers to digital inclusion and online social networking
among young people with disabilities’, Information Systems Journal, Vol. 27, No. 5,
pp.559–588 [online] https://doi.org/10.1111/isj.12106.
Nikravesh, A., Choffnes, D.R., Katz-bassett, E., Mao, Z.M. and Welsh, M. (2014) ‘Mobile network
performance from user devices: a longitudinal, multidimensional analysis’, International
Conference on Passive and Active Network Measurement, pp.12–13.
Noor, A., Suryana, M. and Sholihati, A. (2019) ‘E-business readiness in Indonesian small medium
size travel agencies’, 3rd International Seminar on Tourism (Isot 2018), Vol. 259, pp.37–41
[online] https://doi.org/10.2991/isot-18.2019.8.
Nugroho, R.A. (2015) Electronic Government Adoption in Developing Countries: The Case of the
Indonesian Electronic Procurement System, University of Queensland.
Olumoye, M.Y. and Govender, I. (2018) ‘An empirical investigation of factors influencing
integrated e-government implementation in Nigeria: a case of housing and urban development
agency’, Electronic Journal of Information Systems in Developing Countries, Vol. 84, No. 1,
pp.1–13 [online] https://doi.org/10.1002/isd2.12012.
Pau, L. (2008) ‘Mobile service affordability for the needy, addiction, and ICT policy implications’,
7th International Conference on Mobile Business Mobile, pp.41–48 [online] https://doi.org/
10.1109/ICMB.2008.11.
Pudjianto, B., Zo, H., Ciganek, A.P. and Rho, J.J. (2011) ‘Determinants of e-government
assimilation in Indonesia: an empirical investigation using a TOE framework’, Asia Pacific
Journal of Information Systems, Vol. 21, No. 1, pp.50–80 [online] https://papers.ssrn.com/
sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=1553651.
Raghupathi, W. and Wu, S.J. (2011) ‘The relationship between information and communication
technologies and country governance: an exploratory study’, Communications of the
Association for Information Systems, Vol. 28, No. 1, pp.181–198 [online] https://doi.org/
10.17705/1cais.02812.
Rana, N., Dwivedi, Y. and Lal, B. (2015) Factors Influencing Citizen’s Adoption of an
E-Government System: Validation of the Decomposed Theory of Planned Behavior, UK
Academy for Information Systems.
Comment [H21]: Author: Please cite
the reference in the text or delete from the
list if not required.
Comment [H22]: Author: Please cite
the reference in the text or delete from the
list if not required.
Comment [H23]: Author: Please
provide the issue number.
18
I.O. Adam and M.D. Alhassan
Razak, F.Z.B.A., Bakar, A.A. and Abdullah, W.S.W. (2017) ‘How perceived effort expectancy and
social influence affects the continuance of intention to use e-government. A study of a
Malaysian government service’, Electronic Government, Vol. 13, No. 1, pp.69–80 [online]
https://doi.org/10.1504/EG.2017.083943.
Sabani, A., Deng, H. and Thai, V.V. (2018) ‘A conceptual framework for the adoption of
e-government in Indonesia’, Australasian Conference on Information Systems, December,
Vol. 6, pp.1–13 [online] http://www.irmbrjournal.com.
Samuel, M., Doctor, G., Christian, P. and Baradi, M. (2020) ‘Drivers and barriers to e-government
adoption in Indian cities’, Journal of Urban Management, Vol. 9, No. 4, pp.408–417 [online]
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jum.2020.05.002.
Sánchez-Torres, J.A., Arroyo-Cañada, F.J., Varon-Sandoval, A. and Sánchez-Alzate, J.A. (2021)
‘Adoption of e-government in Colombia: the importance of government policy in citizens’
use of e-government’, Electronic Government, an International Journal, Vol. 17, No. 2,
pp.220–236.
Siriluck, R. (2009) ‘Electronic government service acceptance: the E-Gov-Sam aspect of the
e-revenue system’, International Conference on Electronic Business (ICEB).
Srivastava, S.C. and Teo, T.S.H. (2006) ‘Facilitators for e-government development: an application
of the technology-organization-environment framework’, Association for Information Systems
– 12th Americas Conference on Information Systems, AMCIS 2006, Vol. 4, pp.2297–2306.
Srivastava, S.C. and Teo, T.S.H. (2007) ‘What facilitates e-government development?
A cross-country analysis’, Electronic Government, an International Journal, Vol. 4, No. 4,
pp.365–378.
Srivastava, S.C., Teo, T. and Teo, T.S.H. (2006) Determinants and Impact of e-Government and
e-Business Development: A Global Perspective, Association for Information Systems AIS
Electronic Library (AISeL).
Thi, L., Lim, H. and Al-zoubi, M.I. (2014) ‘E-government usage: evidence of Jordanian
companies’, International Journal of Business and Society, Vol. 15, No. 3, pp.413–436.
UN-Report (2010) UN Global E-Government Survey 2010: Leveraging E-Government at a
Time of Financial and Economic Crisis [online] http://www.unpan.org/egovkb/global_reports/
08report.htm.
Urbach, N. and Ahlemann, F. (2010) ‘Structural equation modeling in information systems research
using partial least squares’, Journal of Information Technology Theory and Application,
Vol. 11, No. 2, pp.5–40.
Verkijika, S.F. and De Wet, L. (2018) ‘E-government adoption in sub-Saharan Africa’, Electronic
Commerce Research and Applications, February, Vol. 30, pp.83–93 [online] https://doi.org/
10.1016/j.elerap.2018.05.012.
Von Haldenwang, C. (2004) ‘Electronic government (e-government) and development’,
The European Journal of Development Research, Vol. 16, No. 2, pp.417–432 [online]
https://doi.org/10.1080/0957881042000220886.
Wallsten, S. (2005) ‘Regulation and internet use in developing countries’, The University Chicago
Press Journals, Vol. 53, No. 2, pp.501–523.
Woszczynskia, A. and Whitman, M. (2004) ‘The problem of common method variance in IS
research’, in The Handbook of Information Systems Research, pp.66–77, Idea Group
Publishing, Hershey, PA.
Yun, H., Lee, C.C., Kim, B.G. and Kettinger, W.J. (2011) ‘What determines actual use of mobile
web browsing services? A contextual study in Korea’, Communications of the Association for
Information Systems, Vol. 28, No. 21 [online] https://doi.org/10.17705/1CAIS.02821.
Comment [H24]: Author: Please cite
the reference in the text or delete from the
list if not required.
Comment [H25]: Author: Please
provide the access details (date when the
site was accessed/visited).
Comment [H26]: Author: Please cite
the reference in the text or delete from the
list if not required.
19
The effects of mobile network performance and affordability
Appendix
List of countries
Albania
Ethiopia
Kenya
Algeria
Finland
Kuwait
Argentina
Qatar
Kyrgyzstan
Armenia
Romania
Latvia
Australia
Austria
Azerbaijan
Bahrain
Rwanda
Lebanon
Saudi Arabia
Lithuania
Senegal
Luxembourg
Serbia
Madagascar
Bangladesh
Singapore
Malawi
Belarus
Slovakia
Malaysia
Belgium
France
Mali
Bosnia and Herzegovina
Georgia
Malta
Botswana
Germany
Tunisia
Brazil
Ghana
Turkey
Bulgaria
Greece
Uganda
Cameroon
Guatemala
Ukraine
Panama
Honduras
United Arab Emirates
Paraguay
Hungary
Uruguay
Peru
Iceland
Yemen
India
Zambia
Philippines
Poland
Indonesia
Zimbabwe
Portugal
Ireland
Mauritius
Slovenia
Israel
Mexico
Canada
Italy
Mongolia
Chile
Jamaica
Morocco
China
South Africa
Mozambique
Colombia
Spain
Namibia
Costa Rica
Sri Lanka
Nepal
Croatia
Sweden
Netherlands
Cyprus
Switzerland
New Zealand
Tajikistan
Nigeria
Thailand
Norway
Denmark
Dominican Republic
Ecuador
Egypt
El Salvador
Estonia
Trinidad and Tobago
Oman
Japan
Pakistan
Jordan
Kazakhstan