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Priorities, policies and practice of e-government in a developing country context: ICT infrastructure and diffusion in Jamaica

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European Journal of Information Systems

Abstract

This paper presents the findings of recent research into e-government policies and initiatives undertaken by the Government of Jamaica within the context of selective intervention facilitated through financial and technical assistance. In the specific context of a developing economy it highlights the use of infrastructure building and government intervention to aid diffusion of information and communication technology (ICT) and draws attention to the differences between developed and developing countries in their approach to e-government. A case of the Jamaica Customs Department is provided to exemplify the implementation of e-government in practice. Using institutional factor analysis for IT innovation the interaction of policy and practice is analysed. Four significant themes are identified that characterise the context for e-government policy, together with the associated institutional factors. The relative importance of these factors is demonstrated with Innovation Directive, Standards and Subsidy shown to be prime. These findings contribute to both institutional factor analysis for IT innovation and to ICT adoption theory, and together signal the importance of the inclusion of policy-based intervention in a future research agenda for e-government in a developing country context.

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Acknowledgements

The authors would like to express their thanks to the Jamaican Government, Association of Commonwealth Universities and the British Council for funding this research. Thanks also to all the participants from government institutions and organisations who gave their time and valuable information. Special thanks to the Ministry of Commerce, Science and Technology, including Michael DuQuesnay, for facilitating access and encouraging independent research. The authors also wish to acknowledge the constructive suggestions of the three reviewers and of the editors in the drafting of this paper.

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  1. Department of Management Science, Lancaster University Management School, Lancaster, U.K.

    David H Brown & Sheryl Thompson

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  1. David H Brown
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  2. Sheryl Thompson
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†Both authors contributed equally to this paper

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Brown, D., Thompson, S. Priorities, policies and practice of e-government in a developing country context: ICT infrastructure and diffusion in Jamaica. Eur J Inf Syst 20, 329–342 (2011). https://doi.org/10.1057/ejis.2011.3

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