Factors influencing cloud computing adoption for e-government implementation in developing countries. Instrument development
| Date | 08 August 2016 |
| Pages | 297-327 |
| Published date | 08 August 2016 |
| DOI | https://doi.org/10.1108/JSIT-01-2016-0001 |
| Author | Fathey Mohammed,Othman Ibrahim,Norafida Ithnin |
| Subject Matter | Information & knowledge management,Information systems,Information & communications technology |
Factors inuencing cloud
computing adoption for
e-government implementation in
developing countries
Instrument development
Fathey Mohammed
Department of Information Systems, Faculty of Computing,
Universiti Teknologi Malaysia, Johor Bahru, Johor, Malaysia and
Department of Information Technology, Faculty of Engineering and
Information Technology, Taiz University, Taiz, Yemen, and
Othman Ibrahim and Norada Ithnin
Department of Information Systems, Universiti Teknologi Malaysia,
Johor Bahru, Malaysia
Abstract
Purpose – This paper aims to develop a model and measurement to investigate the factors inuencing
cloud computing adoption as a part of developing countries’ alternatives to implement e-government
services.
Design/methodology/approach – This study proposes a theoretical model based on the literature of
technology adoption models. It constructs scale measurements for the proposed model constructs by
extracting and adapting the items from the literature. The authors verify the scales’ content validity and
reliability by applying face validity, pre-testing and pilot study. For the pilot study, the authors collect
the data from 26 information technology staff in ve public organizations in Yemen. The authors test
the reliability of the scales using Cronbach’s alpha criterion, and then conduct exploratory factor
analysis to evaluate the validity of the scales.
Findings – The results show that the scale measurements meet the conventional criteria of reliability
and validity.
Originality/value – Theoretically, this paper provides an integrated model for examining cloud
computing adoption for e-government implementation in developing countries. In addition, it develops
an instrument to empirically investigate the inuencing factors of cloud computing adoption in the
context of developing countries’ e-government initiatives.
Keywords Developing countries, Adoption, Cloud computing, e-government, Measurement
Paper type Research paper
1. Introduction
Electronic government (E-government) is considered as a tool to modify the concept of
governance resulting in the citizens’ participation, transparency in public functions and
efciency in public service delivery (OJO, 2014). Governments over the world recognized
the potential opportunities offered by information and communication technology (ICT)
to increase efciency in internal processes and offer better services to citizens.
The current issue and full text archive of this journal is available on Emerald Insight at:
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Cloud
computing
297
Received 4 January 2016
Revised 19 April 2016
Accepted 19 April 2016
Journalof Systems and
InformationTechnology
Vol.18 No. 3, 2016
pp.297-327
©Emerald Group Publishing Limited
1328-7265
DOI 10.1108/JSIT-01-2016-0001
Consequently, governments that ignore the value of the emerging ICT technologies may
suffer crucial competitive disadvantages. However, e-government implementation is
costly, involves enormous risk and requires skilled technical resources and a stable
technical infrastructure (Ebrahim and Irani, 2005). On the other hand, there is a lack of
readiness for e-government in many developing countries because of lack of resources,
poor technology infrastructure, lack of ICT skills and low level of education and literacy
(Gant, 2008;Kanaan, 2009). ICT infrastructure, human resources and nancial resources
are the most critical challenges and obstacles for e-government in developing countries
(Al-Rashidi, 2013;Rana et al., 2013). In addition, recent reports from the United Nation
(UN), International Telecommunication Union (ITU), World Economic Forum (WEF)
and Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU) show that many of developing countries have low
indices in relation to ICT infrastructure, human capital and connectivity (E.I. Unit, 2010,
ITU, 2012;Zukang, 2012;Bilbao-Osorio et al., 2013). In consequence, e-government
implementation requirements are difcult to be met in these countries. Therefore,
e-government in many developing countries has not delivered the promise of more
efcient and effective public services, and governments still struggle with the problems
of ineffective business processes because of insufcient use of ICT (Shareef et al., 2010;
Wang and Hou, 2010;Al-Rashidi, 2013).
Therefore, for developing countries – more specic, countries that still in the early
stages or those that have not begun e-government project yet – while they invest in ICTs
to implementing e-government systems, there is an increasing need to exploit the
opportunities created by the new emerging ICT technologies and paradigms.
Governments can realize the potential benets of new emerging technologies and turn to
technology innovations as a way to overcome their challenges. Cloud computing is
fueling the innovation in service delivery platforms and underlying networking
infrastructures. It may bring a lot of opportunities to deliver user perspective and
cost-effective new services.
Cloud computing can provide a good basis to hope that some of the traditional
challenges can be addressed. It may make a revolution in e-government systems, in
terms of cost saving, and actual and professional use of resources (Bansal et al., 2012;
Galal-Edeen, 2012;Alshomrani and Qamar, 2013). Further, cloud computing recently
has created a revolution in the way ICT is used by organizations and individuals, and
cloud-based application in the public sector already has established its effectiveness in
meeting the requirements and the unexpected needs of resources (Tripathi and Parihar,
2011). Cloud computing has key characteristics and feasible features that make it proper
for use in an e-government implementation. Gartner predicts that 20 per cent of the
government agencies use cloud computing to be more effective. Further, because of its
advantages, many countries have launched cloud computing for e-governance (Sharma
et al., 2012). Governments are seeking to enhance their own ICT infrastructure and
reduce ICT cost by using cloud services. Many governments around the globe are
introducing moving to the cloud computing as a tool of improving services, reducing
costs and increasing effectiveness and efciency in the public sector (Kurdi et al., 2011).
Several examples show that cloud computing has become a strategic direction for public
sector organizations and is already being adopted in critical domains of the
government’s information technology (IT) infrastructure in the world. For example,
USA.gov which is the main federal government information portal in the USA adopted
a cloud-based solution (Terremark’s Enterprise Cloud service) to overcome some issues
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