E-Government as a Tool for Human Development: The Moderating Influence of National Culture

ABSTRACT

Given the paucity of quantitative studies investigating the potential of E-Government (EGOV) in enabling national development, our study first attempts to explore EGOV as a potential tool for countries to fulfill their Human Development goals. Toward this, we employ modernization theory and human development perspective to draw the theoretical linkages between EGOV and Human Development. Acknowledging the influence of contextual factors on differential EGOV impacts, we further make use of Schwartz’s cultural values theory to understand the influence of national culture on the EGOV-Human Development relationship. Using archival data for 70 countries, our study specifically provides empirical evidence of EGOV as a significant enabler of Human Development. Besides, our results also highlight the negative moderating influence of Autonomy-Embeddedness on the EGOV-Human Development relationship. Our findings, therefore, suggest the need for appropriate management of contextual factors. Based on these findings, we derive theoretical and managerial implications and identify avenues for future research.

KEYWORDS:

• E-Government
• human development
• national culture
• Schwartz’s cultural values
• modernization

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Prakrit Silal

Prakrit Silalis a Ph.D. student in the Department of Management Information Systems at Indian Institute of Management, Calcutta. His research interests include Digital Government, E-Participation, Information and Communication Technology for Development (ICT4D). His recent works have been presented in various international conferences including ICIS 2019 and AOM 2020. His AOM 2020 article was nominated for the prestigious Carolyn B. Dexter award. Some of his recent works are forthcoming/published in journals such as Government Information Quarterly, Health Marketing Quarterly, and International Journal of Technology Diffusion.

Debashis Saha

Debashis Saha, currently a Full Professor in the MIS area in IIM-Calcutta (IIMC), has been teaching IT for more than 25 years now. His research interests include IT strategy and governance, ICT4D, Emerging IT paradigms, Digital Disruption, E-Governance, Business Transformation, and Business-driven IT. He has co-supervised 17 doctoral theses, published about 285 research papers in various journals/conferences, and directed four funded projects on IT. His research has appeared in major journals including Decision Support Systems, OMEGA-The International Journal of Management Science, Information System Frontiers, among others. He has also served on the editorial board of selected international journals.