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on Information and Communication Technologies |
| By: | Aykut, Arslan |
| Abstract: | In terms of adoption, the topic of e-government has focused on the supply side (or government-related issues) such as strategies and policy, challenges, technical issues, evaluation of the usability of e-government Websites; however, less attention has been given to the demand (or citizen’s) perspective. Recent studies of the citizen adoption of e-government services suggest that trust, security, and transparency are the major issues for e-government adoption. The aim of this study was to explore whether cross-national differences in the adoption of e-government (Internet users who visited public authorities’ websites in last three months to obtain information, download, and file forms) are associated with differences among national cultures as described in Hofstede's model of cultural dimensions (Power Distance, Individualism, Masculinity, Uncertainty Avoidance and Long-Term Orientation). |
| Keywords: | e-government; e-government adoption; European e-government; European Culture; Cross-cultural difference |
| JEL: | H1 H11 H7 R5 |
| Date: | 2009 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pra:mprapa:20705&r=ict |
| By: | Arvind Ashta (Centre Emile Bernheim, CERMi, Solvay Brussels School of Economics and Management, Université Libre de Bruxelles, Brussels and CEREN, Burgundy School of Business (Groupe ESC Dijon-Bourgogne), France); Djamchid Assadi (CEREN, Burgundy School of Business (Groupe ESC Dijon-Bourgogne), France) |
| Abstract: | Microcredit interest costs remain higher than those of commercial banks in spite of significant donor funds, largely owing to transaction costs relative to small loan sizes. With the rise of Web 2.0 and online social interactivity, can these transaction costs be reduced through peer to peer lending? Peer to Peer lending and Web 2.0 have two things in common. The first common denominator is that both of them are rather newcomers in their respective fields and growing fast. The second is that they are both based on mutual and social exchanges between people instead of centrally controlled communications and relationships. The main objective of this paper was to investigate whether they are integrated to support a higher level of social interactions and associations for less (transaction) costs. We find that peer to peer lending consists of diverse websites of microcredit (Kiva, Wokai), social investing (MicroPlace) as well as small loans at market rates (Prosper, Zopa, Lending Club), and even lending between friends and family members (Virgin Money). The paper studies the use of web 2.0 technologies (blogs, interactivity between lenders and buyers, peers' reviews and comments, peers communities and chats) in six such peer-to-peer lending sites. It finds that most of the peer-to-peer lenders are in fact intermediaries between the peers (lender and borrowers) and there is little direct contact between the peers. One website used none of the web 2.0 tools. None of the websites used all the web 2.0 tools. The impact on transaction costs is therefore very little. A discussion of difficulties in establishing platforms in this field and directions for future research are provided. |
| Date: | 2009–06 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:sol:wpaper:09-056&r=ict |
| By: | Aykut, Arslan |
| Abstract: | Increased environmental uncertainty and complexity along with budget constraints requires public organizations to manage strategically as never before. The environments of public organizations have become increasingly turbulent and more firmly interconnected. During the past two decades, governments have innovated new management tools such as strategic planning, outsourcing, and performance measurement to deal with complex governance and networks to provide their public services. Meanwhile, the drive to implement e-government has resulted in the formulation of many e-government visions and strategies, driven by their own sets of political, economic, and social factors and requirements. With this regard, recent developments in e-service provision of Turkish Local e-Governments deserve empirical and well-structured research. Building on the recent literature, this study draws a strategic orientation framework and tests it by analyzing the contents of strategic documents of 114 Turkish Local e-Governments. |
| Keywords: | Turkish Local e-Governments; e-Government Strategy; Strategic Orientation Model; |
| JEL: | O1 O18 H1 H7 O3 |
| Date: | 2009–03 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pra:mprapa:20704&r=ict |
| By: | Manuela Larcher (Department of Economics and Social Sciences, University of Natural Resources and Applied Life Sciences, Vienna) |
| Abstract: | Dieses Diskussionspapier möchte Unterstützung für Studierende der qualitativen Methoden in den Wirtschafts- und Sozialwissenschaften bieten und einen Beitrag zur qualitativen Methodendiskussion liefern. Es beschäftigt sich mit der Frage nach einer praxisorientierten und zeit¬gemäßen – d.h. QDA-Software unterstützten – Durchführung der zusammenfassenden qualitativen Inhaltsanalyse nach MAYRING. Zwei verschiedene Verfahren werden vorgestellt und hinsichtlich zweier Fragen diskutiert: 1.) Wie kann die zusammenfassende Inhaltsanalyse im Rahmen der technischen Determiniertheit von der QDA-Software Atlas.ti sinnvoll durchgeführt werden und welche Probleme sind dabei zu lösen. 2) Inwieweit können die beiden Verfahren die spezifischen Vorteile von Atlas.ti nutzen? Daraus werden Kriterien für eine praxisorientierte QDA-Software unterstützte zusammenfassende Inhaltsanalyse abgeleitet. |
| Keywords: | Zusammenfassende Inhaltsanalyse, Qualitative Methoden, QDA-Software |
| JEL: | Z |
| Date: | 2010–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:sed:wpaper:462010&r=ict |