AIRCC's International Journal of Computer Science and Information Technology

Yousef Elsheikh ¹, Mohammad Hijjawi ¹

Affiliations
1 Department of Computer Science, Applied Science University, Amman, JO

Abstract

Previous research indicates that there is a failure in the adoption of e-government services to citizens as planned in the context of developing countries. Obstacles behind this failure are varied, including sociocultural, economic and technical obstacles. But with recent advances in mobile technologies as well as the pervasive penetration of mobile phones, governments in developing countries including Jordan have been able to overcome most of these obstacles through the so-called mobile government (or m-government). This has provided an alternative channel for governments to improve the interaction with their citizens, as well as the quality of services provided to them. Accordingly, the exploration of the factors that affect the adoption of m-government services would reduce the gap between government strategies and policies relating to the development of m-government services on the one hand, and the perceptions of citizens on the other hand, allowing for a better understanding of citizens' needs and priorities that must be taken into account by the governments in order to ensure the success of such services on a large scale. This research is based on a re-evaluation of the empirical results of a comprehensive study conducted by Susanto and Goodwin (2010), which concludes that there are fifteen factors that are likely to affect citizens in 25 countries around the world to adopt SMS-based e-government services, but in the context of a different country in the Arab world, namely Jordan.

Keywords

Mobile-Government, Electronic-Government, SMS Technology, Developing Countries, Jordan.

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Mohammad Hijjawi ¹, Yousef Elsheikh ²

Affiliations
1 Department of Computer Science, Applied Science University, Amman, JO
2 Department of Computer Information Systems, Applied Science University, Amman, JO

Abstract

This paper is not to compare between the Arabic language and the English language as natural languages. Instead, it focuses on the comparison among them in terms of their challenges in building text based Conversational Agents (CAs). A CA is an intelligent computer program that used to handle conversations among the user and the machine. Nowadays, CAs can play an important role in many aspects as this work figured. In this paper, different approaches that can be used to build a CA will be differentiated. In each approach, the comparison aspects among the Arabic and English languages will be debated with the respect to the Arabic language.

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Yousef Elsheikh ¹, Mohammad Azzeh ²

Affiliations
1 Department of Computer Science, Applied Science University, Amman, JO
2 Department of Software Engineering, Applied Science University, Amman, JO

Abstract

Yet, existing research on the delivery of citizen-centric e-government services in developing countries is still lacking explanatory power for the following reasons: 1) focus either on the supply-side of these services, or on the demand-side separately, thus there is no enough research on the integration between them, and 2) focus on the results of previous research, thus ignoring the development of theories fit the new context under investigation by understanding the relationship between the implementation of ICT and social structures in the same context. This study aims to fill these gaps by employing a holistic approach to enable in-depth understanding and gain valuable insights for success factors in the delivery of citizencentric e-government services from multiple perspectives, and in the real context of one of the Arab countries, namely Jordan. This would reduce the gap between strategies and government policies on the one hand, and the perceptions of citizens on the other hand about the determinants of the delivery of citizen-centric e-government services in developing countries, allowing a better understanding of citizens' needs and priorities that must be taken into account by those governments in order to ensure the success of those services on a large scale. This study is part of a two-phase research aims to propose an integrated model of success factors in the delivery of citizen centric e-government services and then validate it in the context of developing countries in general and Jordan in particular. The first phase, which is beyond the scope of this study, employs grounded theory method to develop a research model, as well as survey instruments necessary to validate it. The second phase, which is within the scope of this study, employs survey questionnaire method to validate the research model by using multivariate and structural equation modeling (SEM). The results show that factors such as the perception of ease of use as well as the perception of usefulness are no longer affect the delivery of citizen-centric e-government services in this particular context. The results also show that the perception of organizational loyalty through more involvement of citizens in the decision-making process of change, as well as awareness-raising campaigns for such e-services, is among the positive and significant factors that affect the delivery of citizen-centric egovernment services in the same context. Perception of trust, quality and security in e-services, all of these have significance and positive impact on the delivery of such e-services in this particular context. Website design is also among the factors that have significance and a positive impact in the same context. Most importantly, the results show that the national e-readiness, including the macro political environment, legal and regulatory environment, socio-economic environment and infrastructure related to ICT, is among the factors that have significance, but did not reach to become positive in this particular context. However, the modern Arab culture stands out as among the factors that have significance, as well as a positive impact in this context. Finally, this study concludes by highlighting the theoretical and practical implications, limitations and future directions.

Keywords

ICT, Citizen-Centric E-Government Services Delivery, Grounded Theory, Structural Equation Modeling, Developing Countries, Jordan.

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