Overview

The advent of network-based information systems, such as Internet, has provided the public sector a new propelling strength to attain better governing. Facilitated by the connectivity, communality, and interactivity of network-based information systems, government is able to streamline its administration processes across departments and agencies, both horizontally and vertically, in providing better services to its internal consumers (government-to-employees, G-E) as well as external consumers (government-to-citizens, G-C; and government-to-business, G-B). The strategic use of information systems to achieve better government is termed e-Government. E-Government unveils the opportunities towards enhancement of public resource utilization, formation of strategic alliance with public and business organizations in provision of more convenient services, improvement of citizens' satisfaction, facilitation of operation of businesses, attaining more direct democracy, and gaining of competitive advantage through more effective governance. The implications of e-Government are thus all-encompassing, bearing influence on all sections of society from individual, organizational, national, to international levels, and hence deserve ample research attention.

Area of Focus

1. Investigate factors affecting adoption and use of e-Government by all sections of society. This includes study on factors which are unique to different age groups, cultures, and institutions.
   
   
2. Investigate issues pertaining to e-Democracy, such as citizen participation and public deliberation. Of interest are the e-Government applications that can help attain e-Democracy, such as e-Consultation.

3. Examine organization change issues associated with e-Government initiatives. Study the mutually-influencing relationships of information systems introduction with the public organizations.
   
   
4. Construct framework of e-Government services classification to facilitate more systematic research in this area. Organize the vast varieties of e-Government services into systematic framework to see if different types of services have different requirements from the citizens and hence demand special design and implementation attention.
   
   
5. Investigate the impacts of e-Government implementation, such as whether it improves citizens' quality of life or widens digital divide.
   
   
6. Examine how exploitation of e-Government infrastructures and technologies relate to knowledge management initiatives in public organizations.

1. Phang, C.W., Sutanto, J., Li, Y. and Kankanhalli, A. (2005). “Senior Citizens' Adoption of E-Government: In Quest of the Antecedents of Perceived Usefulness,” in Proceedings of the 38th Annual Hawaii International Conference on System Sciences (HICSS) , Big Island , Hawaii , U. S.
   
   
2. Venkataraju, S., A. Kankanhalli, and K.S. Raman (2003). “Building the Digital Bridge : A Longitudinal Study of Community Learning Centres,” in Proceeding of the International Conference on Information Systems (ICIS) , Seattle , U. S.

3. Devadoss, P. R., Pan, S. L. and Huang, J. C. (2003). “Structurational Analysis of E-Government Initiatives: A Case Study of SCO,” Decision Support Systems , 34(3), pp. 253-269.
   
   
4. Tan, C. W., and Pan, S L (2003). “Managing E-Transformation in the Public Sector: An E-government Study of Inland Revenue Authority of Singapore (IRAS)," European Journal of Information Systems, 12(4), pp. 269-281.