Perception of corruption in e-government services post-launch of “Digital India”: role of demographic variables

Pages163-177
Date12 March 2018
Published date12 March 2018
DOIhttps://doi.org/10.1108/DPRG-02-2017-0007
AuthorStuti Saxena
Subject MatterInformation & knowledge management,Information management & governance,Information policy
Perception of corruption in e-government
services post-launch of Digital India: role
of demographic variables
Stuti Saxena
Abstract
Purpose The purpose of this paper is to underline the role of demographic variables as far as the
perceptionof corruption among the Indian respondentsis concerned.
Design/methodology/approach Hierarchicalregression analysis is conducted to ascertain the role of
demographicvariables in line with the study’s objectives.
Findings Gender is a demographic factor that influences the perception of corruption by the
respondents.Other demographic factors includingeducation, marital status, professionalstatus and age
do not have any influenceon the user perception of corruption in e-government services.Implicitly, there
are differences in the manner in whichmen and women perceive the prevalence of corruption in India.
Therefore, males perceive that corruption has decreased in e-government services post-launch of
‘‘DigitalIndia’’ initiative and women perceivethe opposite.
Research limitations/implications On the one hand,the study holds significance, in that no empirical
investigationhas been conducted which seeks to underline the impact of the ‘‘DigitalIndia’’ initiatives on
the citizen’sperception of corruption in publicservices. On the other hand, thepresent research is limited
in the sensethat only demographic variables are beingprobed in the present study with a small sample.
Originality/value Studies in developing countries have remained few and far between despite the
growing concern for existenceof corruption in government services. The present study seeks to fill the
gap by underlining the role of demographic variables as far as the perception of corruption in public
servicesis concerned in the Indian context.
Keywords India, Corruption, E-government, Digital India
Paper type Research paper
1. Introduction
The call for transparency and public accountability in administration ha s remained a major
concern in developing and developed countries (Singh et al.,2010). Therefore, government
innovations are being undertaken for ensuring that public services are delivered in a smooth
and efficient manner. However, in societies ridden with the menace of corruption, achievin g
the over-arching goals of governance is difficult (Foo et al.,2014;Krishnan et al., 2013 ). For
this purpose, governments have been introducing a series of innovations to ensure
transparency in administration. Government innovations are conducted to ensure social
transformation (Barrett et al.,2001;Krell et al., 2016) and reform of administration (Walsham
and Sahay, 1999). One of these innovations is that of e-government by which information
technology (IT) applications are tapped for public service delivery (Ndou , 2004) and to bring
about efficiency, economy and effectiveness in administration (Ciborra, 2005;Zhao and Xu,
2015). Research has underlined that e-government initiatives help in checking red tape and
inefficiency in government (Cullen, 2009). Corruption is a me asure of government inefficiency
(Asogwa, 2012;Belwal and Al-Zoubi, 2008;Ciborra, 2005;Valle-Cruz et al., 2016)andwhile
Stuti Saxena is Researcher
at the Department of
Political Science, Central
University of Haryana,
Mahendragarh, India, and
Siraj Quryat Trading and
Contracting LLC, Muscat,
Oman.
Received 16 February 2017
Revised 24 July 2017
Accepted 16 August 2017
DOI 10.1108/DPRG-02-2017-0007 VOL. 20 NO. 2 2018, pp. 163-177, ©Emerald Publishing Limited, ISSN 2398-5038 jDIGITAL POLICY, REGULATION AND GOVERNANCE jPAGE 163

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