Realising e‐government in the UK: rural and urban challenges

Abstract

PurposeThe considerable success achieved with information and communications technologies (ICTs) within the private sector has influenced various stakeholders (including the government) to link up public sector services with the internet revolution. This is being achieved by making expeditious attempts to provide online public sector products and services on a nationwide basis. However, there are certain regions and groups of the populace in a country where this aim will not be achieved. Aims to focus on this.Design/methodology/approachUsing two comparative case studies and a combination of qualitative and quantitative data, this research identifies the challenges being faced by the UK government in ensuring e‐government products and services to both the rural and urban areas. The London Borough of Hillingdon is used to illustrate the case of the urban area, whilst Conwy County Borough Council is the rural case.FindingsThe research found that while citizens' backgrounds influenced accessibility to e‐government services in the urban area, geographic location related issues were posing problems to the same in the rural area.Practical implicationsWhile illustrating a digital divide, this implies that the UK government still has challenges to overcome, as it has to obtain and convince the citizens to attain internet access that will allow them to acquire the online products and services offered by the government. Amongst other challenges to be encountered are how to overcome the organisational and technical issues that could impede the desired integration of business processes and technologies across government institutions for effective e‐governance.Originality/valueAddresses issues that the UK has to overcome in providing online public sector products and services offered by the government.

Factors influencing e-government use in non-urban areas

“…To our knowledge, only one study was designed to investigate the particularities of e-government attitudes and adoption factors in rural areas [2]. The distinction between urban and rural citizens is relatively absent in past research.…”

“…These services, also known as e-government, are defined as ''the production and the delivery of government services through IT applications'' [1] and mainly consist of information access, communication and transaction services [2]. Their use is increasing [3], but citizens in outlying regions remain less likely to be regular users than their counterparts in larger cities.…”

The Failure of E-government in Jordan to Fulfill Potential

“…Lack of funding was a persistent barrier to the development in e-government project in developing countries [34]. However, in Jordan the issue is quite different because lack of funding represent constant problem, not only for e-government project, but also for other projects unlike ICT.…”

A path analytic model and measurement of the business value of e-government: An international perspective

“…The considerable success achieved with information and communications technologies within the private sector has influenced various stakeholders (including the government) to link up public sector services with the internet revolution (Barca & Cordella, 2004;Choudrie, Weerakkody, & Jones, 2005;Heeks, 2004;Kenway, 2004;Susman, 2001). E-government refers to government's use of information technology (IT) applications to enhance the access and delivery of government information and service to citizens, business partners, employees, other agencies, and government entities (McClure, 2000;Symonds, 2000;West, 2004).…”