EIRP Proceedings (May 2012)

The Influence of Context on Participatory E-Government Applications: A Comparison of E-government Adoption in Romania and South Korea

  • Greg Porumbescu,
  • Catalin Vrabie,
  • Jiho Ahn

Journal volume & issue
Vol. 7, no. 1
pp. 825 – 836

Abstract

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This article assesses how contextual factors influence participatory applications of e-government.While the pursuit of participatory e-government projects is increasingly advocated, little research to date hasattempted to investigate whether such applications of e-government are feasible across all national contexts.In particular, this research will focus upon assessing how the political, economic, and social characteristics ofa particular government’s context influence the introduction of participatory applications of e-government.To explore the relationships between contextual factors and applications of e-government, we compareparticipatory e-government applications in Romania and South Korea. These nations were selected becausethey possess important similarities and differences related to their political, social, and economic contexts. Asan attempt to fill this dearth in existing literature, the research question this study investigates is how certaincontextual features serve to influence the adoption of participatory applications of e-government. Ourfindings suggest that the success of participatory e-government projects is to a large extent contingent uponpolitical and economic contexts, while being less related to social contexts.

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