Collaborative e-Government: impediments and benefits of information-sharing projects in the public sector
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Collaborative e-Government: impediments and benefits of information-sharing projects in the public sector J. Ramon Gil-Garcia1, InduShobha Chengalur-Smith2 and Peter Duchessi2 1 Center for Technology in Government, University at Albany, State University of New York, 187 Wolf Road, Suite 301, Albany, NY, U.S.A.; 2Information Technology Management Department, School of Business, University at Albany, State University of New York, 1400 Washington Avenue, Albany, NY, U.S.A.
Correspondence: J. Ramon Gil-Garcia, Center for Technology in Government, University at Albany, State University of New York, 187 Wolf Road, Suite 301, Albany, NY 12205, U.S.A. Tel: þ 1 518 442 4473; Fax: þ 1 518 442 3886; E-mail: [email protected]
Abstract Information-sharing projects are becoming increasingly important in both public and private organizations. Generally, organizations base their decision to move forward with an information-sharing project on the project’s expected benefits such as better services, operational savings, and increased program effectiveness. Clearly, potential impediments particular to the government environment could limit the attainment of benefits, jeopardizing the project’s business case and even the project itself. Yet, we know very little about how users’ perceived impediments affect a project’s expected benefits in collaborative digital government initiatives. Using data from six public sector information-sharing projects, this paper reveals how some managerial and cultural impediments (e.g., control-oriented management) limit perceptions of expected benefits. Surprisingly, political impediments were not found to significantly affect the expectations of benefits. Additionally, the paper provides managers with specific advice on how to better understand users’ perceptions and expectations. The paper should be of interest to both academicians and practitioners who are interested in government information technology implementation, in general, and collaborative e-Government, in particular. European Journal of Information Systems (2007) 16, 121–133. doi:10.1057/palgrave.ejis.3000673 Keywords: e-Government; collaboration; expected benefits; perceived impediments; information-sharing projects; user experience
Introduction
Received: 31 March 2006 Revised: 14 November 2006 2nd Revision: 8 February 2007 Accepted: 1 March 2007
Information technology (IT) is potentially capable of changing government organizational structures and business processes and, if implemented correctly, of producing substantial organizational, technical, and business benefits (Heeks, 1999; Kraemer & King, 2003). Information sharing is a relatively new type of IT initiative; it involves building systems, instituting formal standards, and changing business processes to allow organizations to share data and information with many other organizations (Caffrey, 1998; Dawes & Prefontaine, 2003; Gil-Garcia et al., 2005). Government information sharing offers a real opportunity to share databases and make decisions based on more complete infor
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