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Abstract
From the beginning of the 21st century, the development and proliferation of mobile technologies has seen the fastest uptake of a technological innovation in history, with more than 7 billion mobile subscriptions worldwide (ITU, 2015). It has multi-faceted advantages; such as low price, convenience, lower infrastructure requirements and near ubiquity; which make it suitable for all forms of business communication and services, as well as government services. However, m-government development worldwide has so far been uneven. While governments in the developed world are adopting m-services as an extension of their existing e-government and web based online services, some developing countries are experimenting with m-services by leapfrogging entire generations of technologies, such as those that are web based. As such, their adoption and implementation processes often follow quite different trajectories, and lessons from both developed and developing countries are not widely shared and understood. Consequently, many of these initiatives, particularly in developing countries, are failing to yield the expected positive outcomes or falling to ‘scale up’ (Kervenoael, Palmer, & Cakici, 2011; Ogunleye & Van Belle, 2014). Also, m-government being a relatively recent innovation with some unique characteristics, practical guidance emerging from sound theoretical underpinnings to guide the successful implementation of these services by governments are not documented in the literature. An extensive review of contemporary literature in the area presents some valuable insights about its trends, limitations, and opportunities, but provides little information about implementation processes. Also, the extant literature on IT-enabled innovation processes is predominantly based on empirical evidence gathered from developed countries, and as such does not address the contextual and other differences arising from the unique circumstances of developing nations.
Against this backdrop, this thesis addresses two research questions: First, how an m-service is implemented in the public sector? Is there a difference between developed and developing countries? Second, what knowledge can be learned or exchanged between developed and developing countries in m-service implementation by governments?
The conceptual framework for this study is drawn from Rogers’ (2003; p.138) innovation-development process framework and Van de Ven et al.’s, (1999; p.25) innovation process framework. Rogers’ (2003) framework is a simple step-wise model consisting of all decisions, activities and impacts arising from recognising a problem. This includes the production of ideas and concepts through research and development, production and marketing to diffuse the innovation, and studying adoption to see if the innovation has been taken up and has had an impact. Again, Van de Ven et al.’s framework (1999), a non-linear model developed by examining fourteen different technical and administrative innovations created in large to small organisations (Schroeder et al., 1986, 1989; Angle & Van de Ven, 1989), is found to be more reliable than a stage-based model (King, 1992). Five in-depth case studies of mobile-based innovation processes (m-government services) were examined from both a developed (Australia) and a developing country (Bangladesh) using a case study method (Yin, 2009). Primary data sources include the responses from 86 interviewees, field notes, and on-site observations, while secondary data consists of relevant organisational documents and gazettes.
The findings show that the mobile based innovation process model based on Rogers’ (2003) and Van de van et al.’s (1999) work needs to be extended to accommodate two significant key elements: ‘anxiety’ and ‘IT governance’, the former of which is strongly evident in developing countries and the latter in developed countries. Across the innovation path of both the developed and the developing nations, the innovators were found to be ‘anxious’ due to unforeseen and uncontrolled activities and events. The issues within ‘IT governance,’ were evident in the developed country (Australia) cases throughout the innovation process due to a customer-centric focus that emphasises citizens’ interests, whereas this was not evident in the developing country’s (Bangladesh) case studies. Other observations on the need for a ‘business case’, ‘research’ and the ‘fluid’ nature of personnel flows focused attention on the innovators when implementing m-services. No formal ‘research’ was evident in four of the five examples studied. In Bangladesh, the employment nature of IT personnel was ‘stable’ during the innovation process, whereas the theory suggested the labour force would be more ‘fluid’ in nature, with people entering and leaving employment.
The thesis offers an extended model of m-service innovation in the public sector, which is applicable to both developed and developing countries, based on empirical evidence derived from research in two different countries. Addressing the gap in existing knowledge, this research develops a comprehensive framework that identifies and analyses key issues within the innovation process. The theory is augmented by the inclusion of two significant issues, ‘anxiety’ and ‘IT governance’. The thesis provides some practical recommendations and guidelines for innovators and policy makers for m-service implementation, which may increase the likelihood of success.