A ‘sweet spot’ change strategy for a least developed country: leveraging e-Government in Bangladesh

Abstract

Information systems have the potential to improve societal conditions in developing countries, and yet design theory to inform interventions to encourage uptake and use of these systems is sparse. This paper reports on an action design research project that addressed the problem of limited adoption of e-Government in Bangladesh. Inadequate knowledge of the nature of e-Government systems had been identified as an underlying cause of many other problems in this ‘wicked’ problem context. The project aimed to reduce knowledge deficiencies among key decision makers through activities that included the delivery of a custom-made training program and a handbook targeted at senior government officers. The project had modest resources and yet yielded significant outcomes. Critical reflection established a number of design principles for a ‘sweet spot change strategy’ for interventions of this type, with the most important principle being to first identify a ‘sweet spot’, a point of maximum leverage, and then to act on it.

Keywords:

• least developed countries
• developing countries
• e-Government
• design science
• action research
• design principles

Acknowledgements

The authors acknowledge the contributions of AusAID, the Australian Agency for International Development, which was the funding body for the project. However, the views expressed in the paper are those of the authors, and do not reflect the views of AusAID. Support was also obtained from the Research School of Accounting and Business Information Systems at the Australian National University and many other willing contributors. An earlier expression of some of the ideas in this paper appeared in Gregor et al (2010).

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Shirley Gregor

About the author

Shirley Gregor is the foundation Professor of Information Systems at the Australian National University, Canberra. Her current research interests include the strategic use of information technology, intelligent systems, human–computer interface issues, and the philosophy of technology. She is currently Editor-in-Chief of the Journal of the Association for Information Systems.

Ahmed Imran

Ahmed Imran is an Information Systems Researcher whose research interests largely emerged from his personal experience in e-government in developing countries. His research has been successfully applied in Bangladesh through an AusAID project, which received the Vice Chancellor’s award for Community Outreach at the Australian National University in 2010.

Tim Turner

Tim Turner has been involved in the IT industry for over 20 years. He has played significant roles in several of Australia’s leading e-government projects and regularly consults to peak bodies in the e-government arena. He is a Senior Lecturer in information systems at UNSW Canberra, at the Australian Defence Force Academy.