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Reasons behind IT project failure: The case of Jordan

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International Journal of Information Technology Project Management
Volume 7 • Issue 1 • January-March 2016

Key Success Factors of

E-Government Projects:
Jordanians’ Perceptions
Emad Abu-Shanab, MIS Department, Yarmouk University, Irbid, Jordan
Lana Q. Bataineh, MIS Department, Yarmouk University, Irbid, Jordan

ABSTRACT

Understanding the key success factors of e-government projects is important because of the huge
investment put into such initiatives. This study investigated the literature to conclude to a set of
factors that explore Jordanians perceptions towards such factors, and rank such factors based on
their importance. This paper explored the literature to build a list of key success factors (KSF) of
e-government projects. The list was pilot tested utilizing a sample of 293 students in a public university
in Jordan. Results indicated that the majority of the proposed items represent important factors that
reinforce success with a high and moderate level of perceptions. Also, a proposed typology was built
around the four major dimensions utilized by this study and their relation to the stakeholders and
they are: infrastructure, public employees, citizens and governments.

Keywords
Electronic Government, Empirical Test, IT Project Management, Jordanian Context, Key Success Factors

1. INTRODUCTION

The adoption of information and communication technology and the diffusion of the Internet among the
general population positively influenced the level of familiarity with technology in many areas such as
communicating with citizen, learning activities, and electronic marketing. This resulted in increasing
citizens’ expectations that the public sector will provide an effective and efficient service similar to
those in the commercial sector (Ibrahim & Irani, 2005). The latest developments in technology forced
governments to change their traditional services to virtual ones and to improve their interactions with
citizens and businesses. This called for changing the structure of public administration which evolved
into a new phenomenon called e-government (Sandoval-Almazan & Gil-Garcia, 2012).
E-government is becoming a necessity for countries that aim for better governance (Ibrahim &
Irani, 2005). The concept of e-government sum up four major areas of research: improving services,

DOI: 10.4018/IJITPM.2016010103

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improving public sector’s performance, aiding e-democracy and e-participation processes, and
including citizens in social and political arenas by bridging the digital divide (Abu-Shanab, 2014).
E-government projects have huge impact on social and political aspects of citizens’ lives.
Failure of e-government projects will inflect severe negative pressures on governments and
will devastate the relationship between governments and citizens. Failing to achieve the objectives
of e-government projects will result in public dissatisfaction and loss of mutual trust. People and
policies play a critical role in improving the chances of e-government project’s success. On the other
side, we can’t forget the supportive role of technology, where such factors (people and policies) can’t
work in isolation. Other important factors reported by the literature are related to project management
and administrative issues such as empowered information technology leader which help in avoiding
e-government failure (Gupta & Jana, 2003). Some facets of the relationship between citizens
and governments are built on the success of e-government projects. It is essential to understand
e-government and explore the factors that impact its success.
This paper elaborates on previous work reported in literature and attempts to investigate the key
success factors of e-government projects. Three major dimensions guided e-government projects
success: infrastructural, human and governmental. Based on this typology, this study utilized a
comprehensive list of dimensions that are reported in the literature that represent the key success
factors (KSF) of e-government projects.
This paper is organized in the following manner: The following section describes the e-government
concept in a short review, followed by a detailed literature review of the three dimensions of
e-government and the factors related to each one of them. In section three we explained the research
methodology and the adopted framework with its detailed dimensions. Section four describes the data
collection process and the discussion of results. Finally, our conclusions, limitations and proposed
future work are reported at the end.

2. LITERATURE REVIEW

The widespread definition of e-government focuses on the use of ICT tools and the Internet to
provide electronic services to citizens (Layne & Lee, 2001; Basu, 2004; Evans & Yen, 2006; World
Bank, 2007; Yildiz, 2007; Papadopoulou, Nikolaidou & Martakos, 2010; Alshehri, Drew & Alfarraj,
2012). Government aims to generate a permanent commitment to enhance the relationship between
the public sector and citizens through efficient, cost effective and improved delivery of government
services (Chen, Chen, Huang & Ching, 2006). The e-government phenomenon includes the following
dimensions: providing information and services to citizens, promoting public participation in decision
making, making public operations transparent, removing corruption and providing opportunities for
better development (Islam & Khair, 2012).

2.1. E-Government Concepts and Models

Governments benefited from embracing the digital revolution by posting a large size of various
governmental materials on the web like information or online governmental services so that citizens
and businesses can benefit from them (Jupata & Jana, 2003). Through the use of ICT, governments
are able to improve the quality of offered services and increase the effectiveness of operations by
reducing costs and increasing productivity (Shajari & Ismail, 2012).
Research reported many terms used to describe e-government such as one-stop government,
digital government, and online government (Gronlund & Horan, 2005). E-government is categorized
in a similar fashion to the concepts and applications of e-commerce (El-Sofany, AL-Tourki, AL-

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Howimle & AL-Sadoon, 2012). The authors proclaimed that the rapid development in ICT tools and
the wide advancements in e-service implementation made many governments establish their portals
and provide many services for citizens anytime and anywhere:

Research did not consent on a unified definition for the concept of e-government. Many definitions
covered different aspects of the concept. E-government is defined as the use of ICT and the World Wide
Web (WWW) for making available public information and services to citizens. It may also include
the use of ICT tool as databases, multimedia applications, information systems and discussion tools
(Magro, 2012). E-government is also defined as the utilization of governmental websites to provide
information about political and governmental services (Nudo, 2004). Other researchers asserted the
use of all web applications, the Internet, and communication technologies to change, improve and
influence the interactions between governments and businesses, citizens and other public bodies.
(Fatile, 2012; Ziemba & Papaj, 2012)

E-government is classified into the following types based on the parties involved in the
transaction: G2C, G2B, and G2G (Nkwe, 2012; Abu-Shanab, 2012; Obeidat & Abu-Shanab, 2010).
All interactions between the government and its citizens are called government-to-citizens (G2C), this
covers all citizens’ interactions with the government such as payment of tax, or renewing licenses.
The interactions between the government and businesses is called government-to-business (G2B),
where transactions like procurement of goods and online sale of goods and services by government
are classified under this dimension. Finally, the interactions among governmental agencies or with
its employees are called government-to-government (G2G).
Governments acknowledge the importance of e-government for the objective of better performance,
citizen-focused services, reduction in their costs, and advancement of public participation and the
political process. The following are the reported e-government benefits (Abu-Shanab, 2012, Fatile,
2102; El-Sofany et al., 2012; Nkwe, 2012):

1. E-government increases efficiency and credibility, collects more revenues and taxes, and improves
public sector reform;
2. E-government makes available easy, inexpensive and fast services to citizens;
3. E-Government facilitates the quick access to services using the Internet and online tools;
4. Increases the capacity of government and the type of services provided;
5. Builds a community and create social networks, where social inclusion is a vital aspect of
e-government reform process through the digital divide resolution;
6. E-government creates a suitable atmosphere for foreign investment and the success of transparency
(Abu-Shanab, 2013), anticorruption (Abu-Shanab, Harb & Al-Zo’bie, 2013), and accountability
and even human rights support (Abu-Shanab & Harb, 2013);
7. Improves the quality of decision making within the public sector administration;
8. Finally, e-government promotes the effective use of ICT tools within diverse categories and
segments of society.

2.2. Infrastructure Challenges

The UN reports emphasize the importance of infrastructure for the swift adoption of e-government
projects. Still, many challenges need to be resolved. These challenges have a crucial influence on
the development and performance of governments and their capabilities to provide digital services
and transactions (Nkwe, 2012). E-government infrastructure consists of hardware components which
include networks, servers, laptops, and personal computer. The other side of infrastructure is the
required software, which includes the needed programs, apps, operating and information systems, and

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data warehouses and databases. Infrastructure includes also all needed resources for such hardware
and software components mentioned (Esteves & Joseph, 2008).
These technologies are necessary for supporting the storage, acquisition, retrieval and
transformation of information. Finally, ICT infrastructure facilitates the process of sharing service
and information between government agencies, which plays a vital role in saving employees’ effort,
and facilitate cooperation, collaboration, and interaction between government agencies (Esteves &
Joseph, 2008; Nkwe, 2012; Abu-Shanab, 2012)
A substantial size of e-government initiatives failed in achieving their predefined goals because
of the vast evolvements in used technology. Countries adopting e-government projects are required
to switch from their legacy systems or update them constantly. Such process is a result of the rapid
changes in technologies (Almarabha & Abu Ali, 2010). The use of ERP systems in public sector
is also doomed with failure and need careful assessment based on a large set of factors that can
be important for the success of such systems (Tarhini, Ammar, Tarhini, & Masa’deh, 2015; Lech,
2013). Making available the needed financial support becomes more difficult because of the formal
procedures followed by public sector in budgeting and allocating resources (Abu-Shanab, 2014).
With the more application of digital cities projects, more resources and capacity to share
information are needed. It is important to look into such projects as programs more than steps
towards a holistic e-government project (Anthopoulos, Ipsilantis, & Kazantzi, 2014). The associated
financial requirements incurred some challenges on governments like: limited financial investments
in ICT, its elevated cost, the cost of training plans which are needed for improving public employees’
competencies in ICT, and the high cost of telecommunication services. Many developing countries
are tempted to take loans and financial support from donors to support their e-government projects.
Such source of funding is considered inadequate for all requirements of the project, which amplifies
the chances of failure (De’ & Sarkar, 2010; El-Sofany et al., 2012).
There is no doubt that the financial investment in the ICT infrastructure to make e-government a
success story brought to the surface issues such as return on investment and cost-benefit issues in order
to ensure the sustainability and continuity of such strategic project. The continuity of e-government
initiatives is important for increasing credibility and reducing risk. Also, it is important to explore
issues related to financing e-government and how it generates revenue. E-government projects depend
mainly on two sources of funding: institution’s core budget or governmental financing options (Esteves
& Joseph, 2008; Abu-Shanab, 2014).
Security and privacy of citizens’ information are considered technical challenges that threat
the success of e-government. Governments should assure the privacy of citizens’ information when
conducting transactions on public interfaces using personal information (El-Sofany et al., 2012).
The quality of e-government website is vital for the acceptance of users since the poor design of
interfaces reflects a bad image of e-government projects and eventually be abandoned by citizens.
So governments should study the major factors influencing citizens’ intention to use e-government
websites (Wangpipatwong, Chutimaskul & Papasratorn, 2008).
There are many other factors that improve website quality including usability, usefulness,
availability of information, its content, the ease of interaction, and accessibility (Qutaishat, 2012). The
interaction process between users and public websites depends on many factors like: the quality of
service provided for citizens, content quality, accessibility options, time of service and its convenience
level. The satisfaction with e-government services is also a crucial aspect that defines the success of
e-government projects. Such aspect is reached by focusing on the needs and personal preferences of
citizens (Ndou, 2004; Gronlund & Horan, 2005).

2.3. Human Factors

Users have vital role in the success or failure of information technology systems based on their
involvement in the development process (Procter & Businge, 2013; Yu, 2010) or their adoption of
the system. The human factors related to e-government projects are mainly represented by citizens &

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public personnel. E-government projects aims at reinforcing the relationship between governments
and citizens and make such relationship more collaborative. Such collaboration requires an effective
cooperation and communication between governmental bodies, citizens, and businesses (Bhatnager,
2004; Qutaishat, 2012).
Governments need to play a fundamental role in reconfiguring public sector structure and
organizing the communication channels and interaction with citizens and businesses. But e-government
projects still face huge resistance from public sectors employees; the reason behind this rejection
is due to the needed changes of operations within the public sector based on the business process
reengineering initiatives. Switching to electronic channels and automating services will influence
human power over the process and will increase transparency and reduce corruption (Ibrahim & Irani,
2005; Nkaw, 2012). As mentioned earlier, e-government can be used to fight corruption, which was
supported empirically by previous research (Abu-Shanab et al., 2013).
Another cause for failure of e-government projects might be accounted for public employees’
resistance to e-government initiatives. Civil servants fear such initiatives because of the reduction
of employment levels. Another reason is the skill requirements of new jobs which might affect the
workforce structured. Research indicated that certified IT project managers are vital to the success of
such projects (Catanio, Armstrong & Tucker, 2013). There are many solutions to fix this problem such
as increasing the awareness and perception of e-governments concept, which will reflect positively
on employees’ motivation towards such change. Training is needed in private and public sectors that
deal with e-government projects to achieve the required level of skill and competency (Alshehri et al.,
2012; Andersen, 2006). The training content should cover the use of ICT tools and Internet. Training
results might improve the chances of success of e-government projects (Andersen, 2006). The author
emphasized also the level of employees’ readiness to embrace e-government projects.
It is evidenced that developing countries suffer from the lack of qualified staff, and suitable
training programs. E-government needs new human skills and knowledge in technological areas,
managerial, and business areas for the process of designing, installing, maintaining, and operating
ICT infrastructure. Another central skill is related to managing online operations, activities, and how
to target citizens through their preferred channel (Ndou, 2004). Recent publications and literature
require managers to acquire some social media and web 2.0 types of skills (Turban & Volonino, 2011).
The other major dimension within the human efforts is the citizen adoption process. The risk of
failure in e-government projects increases as a result of citizens lacking awareness about e-government
benefits. Educating people about the benefits and objectives of e- government projects governments
can raise citizens’ awareness of such projects; citizens who appreciate the benefits of such initiatives
will be more likely to accept the initiative and use it (Qamar, Jan & Hasan, 2012; Jaeger & Thompson,
2003).
The digital divide phenomenon remains a major stumbling block in the progress of e-government
projects. Digital divide is defined as the difference between people who can access and use the Internet
(or other ICT applications), and others who can’t. The utilization of service kiosks or knowledge
centers is a solution for many countries to bridge the digital divide problem. Such initiatives serve
different categories of citizens such as local residents of rural areas, disadvantaged segments of citizens
(citizens with disabilities or women under oppression (Abu-Shanab & Al-Jamal, 2015)), and older
citizens and un-educated citizens through providing them with easy access to e-government services
(Abu-Shanab & Khasawneh, 2013). Governments should make efforts to bridge the gap between
remote areas and urban areas by building adequate infrastructure (Almarabha & Abu Ali, 2010).
One of the important challenges that influence the process of implementing e-government projects
is the cultural differences within a country. Cultural aspects like social characteristics, language,
education, religion, background, and experiences and perceptions of e-government phenomenon.
Governments should take into account the cultural differences within society and design its websites
to accommodate such differences. Providing multi-language websites motivates people to use
e-government services. Governments need to facilitate the provision of comprehensive information

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for citizens through e-government websites. Portals that support multi-language options and satisfy
people’s backgrounds and demographics are important features of successful e-government projects
(Bhatnager, 2004; Abu-Shanab, 2014).
The attitudes towards e-government differ from one person to another. While some people
prefer face to face interactions, others prefer electronic services to be effective and feel they should
be convenient (Jaeger & Thompson, 2003). Citizens are influenced by their education, experiences
and the ability to understand and use electronic services. Such issue is associated with the level of
skill and knowledge and the digital gap. The UN surveys use the literacy index to represent the level
of e-government readiness (UNDESA, 2012). Governments aim to encourage citizens to engage
in e-government initiatives and raise the awareness and competency through conducting training
campaigns. This will cost governments too much (Fatile, 2012). Also, the verification of achieving
project goals is essential for the success of e-government projects. Such step is done through field
research and utilization of citizens’ feedback regarding the services provided.

2.4. Governmental Factors

E-government projects rely on governments and the capacity to manage this kind of projects. Studies
have shown that large governments have shown greater tendency to adopt e-government projects
more than small governments because they are able to provide larger resources needed and to provide
online service required (Garcia-Sánchez, Gudrado-Ballesteros & Frias-Aceituno, 2012). Based on that,
government administration needs to have clear vision and articulate strategies that would improve the
chances of success for e-government projects (Alenezi et al., 2015). Such strategies should focus on
opening information and data, the needed applications and technology, and the required administrative
attitude (Gil-Garcia & Pardo, 2005).
E-government should be assessed before the implementation step to assure the consensus of all
stakeholders on its vision, SMART objectives, and a communicated citizens-government needs (Gil-
Garcia & Pardo, 2005; Fatile, 2012). Also, governments must build trust with society agencies and
companies; citizens and NGOs to guarantee the success of the project (Almarabha & Abu Ali, 2010).
Public activities and the decision-making process must adhere to be transparent measures to
build a long lasting trust relationship. Citizens’ participation enhances the level of understanding of
this process and gains public support for government’s operations. Governments should utilize social
media applications to reach citizens, improve staffing process, promote community participation,
improve the exchange of information, and achieve transparency (Picazo-Vila, Gutierres-Martinez &
Luna-Reyes, 2012; Magro, 2012).
The core of e-government role is not only providing information to citizens, but to formulate a
communication strategy between the public sector and other constituents of society and government.
This connection will be reflected positively on the cooperation through public sector and e-government
partners by facilitating the implementation and diffusion of e-government strategies, process, polices,
and resources (Ibrahim & Irani, 2005).
If the coordination and collaboration between public agencies are weak, all efforts for attaining a
suitable and swift service will be impeded. On the other hand, formulating a communication strategy
between public sector departments is essential, where a collaboration towards a well-articulated
implementation strategy is needed to improve the chances of e-government success. Finally, if the
coordination process between public agencies failed to reduce gatekeepers’ power over service
provision, all BPR efforts will be in vain (Bhatnager, 2004; Almarabha & Abu Ali, 2010; Jaeger &
Thompson, 2003). E-government projects must ensure the existence of adequate legal framework and
effective public policies that support e-transactions. E-government should deploy a comprehensive
framework that takes into consideration issues related to different categories of citizens, the needed
e-services, administrative issues (Almarabha & Abu Ali, 2010).
E-government requires a leadership with well-defined vision, and a project champion who can
handle the requirements of the change process. It is important to facilitate a culture that takes into

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considerations users’ requirements and their effective involvement into the development process
(Procter & Businge, 2013). Leaders who would like to succeed in attaining their objectives are
characterized by their clear vision, innovative techniques and methodology, and well-built motivation
and empowerment. The success of e-government projects is built around an upward participation that
assures public buy-in, where citizens’ needs are top priority (Fatile, 2012). Leaders need to manage
both internal and external communication utilizing all available e-channels and respond wisely and
effectively to feedback assimilated from citizens and businesses for the purpose of reaching the best
performance. The characteristics of successful leaders are flexibility that facilitates the cooperation
between local agencies and central management (Ndou, 2004). Many project management skills should
be available in successful e-government management such as project planning, process reengineering,
performance monitoring and cost estimation (Reffat & Rabee, 2003).

3. RESEARCH METHODOLOGY

This study explored the literature and summarized the major reasons that cause e-government projects
to succeed or fail. The major dimensions reported in the literature are the following: Available
infrastructure, human factors (related to citizens), human factors (related to public employees), and
government processes and capabilities. Abu-Shanab and Bataineh (2014), proposed a model that
depicted such categorization but mixed the two human factors in one dimension. Their research
proposed a framework to research this area by listing a set of items related to the major key success
factors that support e-government projects success. This study adopted their work and extended it
with few more items. Also, an instrument was built in a form of questionnaire to probe Jordanians
perceptions regarding such factors.
The instrument utilized 27 items for measuring the diverse reasons for success of e-government
projects. 8 items were used to investigate the infrastructure and financial reasons for e-government
success; 4 items measured the causes attributed to public employees attitudes; 7 items that explore the
causes related to citizens perception, attitudes, and competencies; and finally, 8 items for measuring
the reasons attributed to the government. The instrument utilized a 5 point Likert scale with 1
representing “totally disagree” and 5 representing “totally agree”. Finally, the questionnaire included
an introduction to the topic and three demographic questions related to gender, age, and education.
The researchers utilized a convenient sample of university students, where ordinary Jordanian
citizens are not well acknowledge and acquainted with issues of e-government projects. Students
studying in the Information Technology College in a public university in Jordan were used as subjects
based on their knowledge of e-government topic. The purpose of this research is exploratory in nature
and aims at exploring the reported key success factors of e-government projects. Thus, students are the
best sample to be used as they understand the diverse causes of failure and have taken e-commerce/
ICT courses that include chapters on e-government or e-commerce.
The total surveys collected were 300 surveys, where 7 surveys were omitted because of their
missing responses on more than one dimension (missing responses on all items of a dimension or
more). The total number of surveys used for analysis was 293 surveys. The demographics of the
sample are depicted in Table 1.

4. DATA ANALYSIS AND DISCUSSION

Data was keyed into SPSS and analyzed for the purpose of exploring Jordanians’ perceptions of
diverse items that were proposed by previous research and assumed to cause e-government project
success. The means and standard deviations of the 27 items are shown in Table 2.
It is important to inspect the items previously listed in Table 2, where the maximum mean reported
is for Q1 (availability of technological infrastructure). Also, the lowest reported mean was for Q2
(technological changes and challenges). It seems that Jordanians are aware of the economical situation

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Table 1. Sample demographics

Count %
Gender
Male 98 33.40%
Female 195 66.60%
Total 293 100%
Age
Less than 20 70 23.90%
20-40 218 74.40%
More than 40 3 1.00%
Not reported 2 0.70%
Total 293 100%
Education
High School 19 6.50%
Bachelor 241 82.30%
Other 31 10.20%
Not reported 2 0.70%
Total 293 100%

and the budget cuts in the country where they felt that infrastructure is a challenge, but still believe
that they can accommodate technological changes easily. We notice that there is no obvious trend or
sequence of items belonging to each dimension. Based on the data listed in Table 2, we can see that
all items were perceived highly by citizens except 5 items (Q2, Q11, Q4, Q5 & Q9). According to
social sciences practices and previous e-government research, a 5 points Likert scale can be classified
into 3 categories: mean values between 1 and 2.33 are considered low, mean values between 2.33 and
3.66 are considered medium, and mean values above 3.66 are considered high.
Such result indicates the appropriate choice of the list of items, where all were perceived medium
and high, which indicates the alignment of this study and proposed KSF in previous research. 5 items
under the infrastructure dimension were the highest perceived items by Jordanians. On the other hand,
the other 3 items of infrastructure were among the lowest items in list (Q2, Q4 & Q5). Two of such
items were related to financial funding and e-government generated revenue. Such picture shows
how Jordanians perceive their government capacity to generate funds for such important project if
they needed.
To estimate the internal consistency of the four mentioned dimensions, Cronbach’s alpha was
estimated to the four dimensions using the associated items in the survey. Values were all at acceptable
level except for the public employees’ dimension, where its value went below 0.6, which raises a
question of the item statement or cohesion. Table 3 shows such estimation.
To see how Jordanians perceive the four proposed dimensions a summated value of mean of the
four dimensions was estimated by averaging the items belonging to each dimension. Table 4 shows
such estimation.
Results in Table 4 indicate that all dimensions are perceived highly by the sample used. The
highest mean estimated was accounted for two dimensions: the citizens’ issues and the government
issues. It looks like when summing all factors that the case of e-government success rests on the
shoulders of governments and citizens more than public employees and infrastructure.

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Table 2. The means and standard deviations of all survey items

Std.
Item Description (Summarized) N Min Max Mean
Dev.
Q1:Technological infrastructure availability 293 1 5 4.38 0.945
Q6: Availability of information security advanced measures 290 1 5 4.29 0.904
Q8: E-government website accessibility and ease of use 293 1 5 4.29 0.889
Q3: The availability of financial funding by government 291 1 5 4.26 0.926
Q7: E-government website design quality (content and info) 292 1 5 4.22 0.928
Q27: Feedback collection from citizens to improve performance 291 1 5 4.16 0.887
Q12: Continuous training of public employees 293 1 5 4.14 0.903
Q14: Citizens access to Internet and ICT availability 292 1 5 4.13 0.893
Q20: Government capability of managing e-government projects 293 1 5 4.12 1.03
Q19: Citizens trust in technology or the Internet 293 1 5 4.09 0.908
Q10: Public employees awareness of e-government vision/mission 293 1 5 4.08 0.838
Q13: Raising citizens awareness of e-government benefits 293 1 5 4.08 0.953
Q26: Availability of wise and visionary leadership 292 1 5 4.06 0.919
Q18: Citizens trust in his government 287 1 5 4.04 1.088
Q16: Citizens skill and knowledge in using ICT or the Internet 291 1 5 4.02 0.915
Q21: Successful e-government strategy and clear objectives 293 1 5 3.99 0.872
Q24: Cooperation/collaboration between governmental institutions 292 1 5 3.98 0.979
Q25: Availability of legal framework and effective policies 292 1 5 3.98 0.891
Q23: Government builds trust with its partners 287 1 5 3.93 1.023
Q17: Government accommodation of citizens’ cultures/traditions 292 1 5 3.92 0.955
Q22: Evaluating e-government projects leads to success 288 1 5 3.88 0.935
Q15: Education level of citizens 289 1 5 3.86 1.129
Q5:Size of revenue generated by e-government projects 286 1 5 3.5 1.055
Q9: Public employees resistance to e-government projects 293 1 5 3.5 1.24
Q4: Opportunities for external financial funding 288 1 5 3.44 1.217
Q11: E-government replacement of public employees staffing 289 1 5 3.42 1.038
Q2: Technology changes as a challenge 292 1 5 3.36 1.067

Table 3. Cronbach’s alpha values

Dimension Items Used N Cronbach’s Alpha

Infrastructure availability Q1, Q2, Q3, Q4, Q5, Q6, Q7 & Q8 274 0.748
Public Employees issues Q9, Q10, Q11 & Q12 289 0.566
Citizens issues Q13, Q14, Q15, Q16, Q17 & Q19 281 0.797
Q20, Q21, Q22, Q23, Q24, Q25, Q26 &
Government issues 280 0.839
Q27

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Table 4. Dimensions means and standard deviation

Std.
Dimension Items Used N Min Max Mean
Dev.
Infrastructure availability Q1, Q2, Q3, Q4, Q5, Q6, Q7 & Q8 293 1 5 3.97 0.60
Public Employees issues Q9, Q10, Q11 & Q12 293 1 5 3.78 0.68
Citizens issues Q13, Q14, Q15, Q16, Q17 & Q19 293 1 5 4.01 0.68
Q20, Q21, Q22, Q23, Q24, Q25, Q26
Government issues 293 1 5 4.01 0.66
& Q27

The results in Table 4 indicated a high level of perception of all four dimensions, which calls for
a check on data to avoid tautology of variables. The estimated values of Pearson correlations shown
in Figure 1 indicate acceptable levels. Very low values of correlations present a weak integration of
the topic (dimensions proposed in this research). On the other hand, very high values of correlations
present a tautology, which means that the variables are the same. The values in Figure 1 indicate also
cohesion between dimensions and a close association between each pair of variables. The highest
relationship depicted is the one between Government and citizens dimensions. This represents an
important direction of association. The values of all relationships are close in values (all between
0.503-0.585). Finally, all values are significant at the 0,001 level, and none of the relationships
presents a negative correlation.
The last test aimed at exploring the influence of demographic factors on such direction, where
an ANOVA test was estimated between the four dimensions based on the three factors: gender, age
and education (see Table 5). The three test yielded insignificant results, which indicate no differences
in perceptions between all categories. Such result was expected as the sample used included mostly
university students, with similar age and education.

5. CONCLUSION

Research on IT project management is focused more on normative approach than an interpretive one
(Hansen & Kroemmergard, 2014). The objective of this study is to empirically test how Jordanians
perceive diverse issues of key success factors common to e-government projects. The study adopted
a typology that classified KSF into four main dimensions: infrastructure, public employees, citizens,
and government. The factors reported in the literature were explored utilizing a survey that probed
Jordanians perceptions regarding each factor.
The aspiration of governments is to acknowledge the factors that amplify the probability of
success and reinforce them. Once such factors are collected in a check list, public employees are aware
of them and can build strategies and plans to avoid failure. The list shown in Table 2 indicates how
Jordanians think of the KSF of e-government projects. Governments need to reinforce such factors
and explore all possibilities on how to build a strong relationship with citizens.

Figure 1. The Pearson correlation matrix

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Volume 7 • Issue 1 • January-March 2016

Table 5. ANOVA tests based on gender, age and education

df F Sig.
Gender
Infrastructure 1-291 2.012 0.157
Public Employees 1-291 1.480 0.225
Citizens 1-291 0.045 0.832
Government 1-291 0.290 0.591
Age
Infrastructure 2-288 0.068 0.935
Public Employees 2-288 0.479 0.620
Citizens 2-288 2.072 0.128
Government 2-288 1.438 0.239
Education
Infrastructure 2-288 0.344 0.794
Public Employees 2-288 0.085 0.968
Citizens 2-288 1.710 0.165
Government 2-288 1.906 0.129

Results indicated a high perception of the four dimensions proposed, and also most items used
were perceived highly by our sample. Table 2 lists 27 KSF (or failure reasons) that need some
attention from governments. E-government projects are doomed to fail is they were not supported
by the technological infrastructure and its security measures (Q1, Q6 & Q14), and an accessible high
quality and easy to use website (Q8 & Q7). Also, financial resources are perceived to be a major
cause of success (Q3). Finally, other causes of success were taking citizens feedback seriously (Q27),
training employees (Q12), government capability (Q20), and citizen’s trust in technology (Q19).
Other reasons are depicted in Table 2.
The four major dimensions proposed in this study is a path of typology that serves the purpose
of research. Each dimension is related to a set of stakeholders. Table 6 shows such classification.
Table 6 also can serve as an agenda for future research, where each dimension is emphasized better
through focusing on related stakeholders and exploring such dimension in multi-perspective fashion.
Research indicated that developing countries are slow in their e-government readiness and
achievements when compared to developed countries. Research is needed to empirically investigate
all four dimensions utilizing the suitable sample. This study is exploratory in nature, where we
identified the KSF of e-government projects and their perceptional views related to the Jordanian

Table 6. A classification of related stakeholders of e-government success dimensions

Second Tier
Dimension First Tier Stakeholder Third Tier Stakeholder
Stakeholder
Infrastructure Government Private sector Financing bodies
Public Employees Public employees Government Citizens/businesses
Citizens Citizens Government Society
Government Government Parliament Public employees

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society. Each item/dimension can be modified, explored and research according to the context of
stakeholders related and the country’s objectives.
This study is the first (up to the knowledge of authors) that explores the critical success factors
related to e-government projects based on the Jordanian environment. Such step can contribute to
the future attempts of using such instrument and guides public efforts into a well-organized effort to
tackle e-government projects successfully. Finally, it is important to start putting some efforts into
evaluation e-government projects and its implementation strategies.
Future research also is needed to explore all previously mentioned factors and similarly investigate
each one of these dimensions in relation to perceptional or hard data perspective. A case study
perspective is also needed to improve our knowledge in the area and add the public employees’
perspective. Finally, research directed to social aspects of e-government can extend our knowledge
in areas like social change and sustainable development.

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Emad A. Abu-Shanab earned his PhD in business administration, in the MIS area from Southern Illinois University
– Carbondale, USA, his MBA from Wilfrid Laurier University in Canada, and his Bachelor in civil engineering from
Yarmouk University (YU) in Jordan. He is an associate professor in MIS. His research interests are in areas like
E-government, technology acceptance, E-marketing, E-CRM, Digital divide, and E-learning. He has published many
articles in journals and conferences, and authored three books on e-government. Dr. Abu-Shanab worked as an
assistant dean for students’ affairs, quality assurance officer in Oman, and the director of Faculty Development
Center at YU.

Lana Q. Bataineh is a master student in the MIS Department at Yarmouk University. Her research interests are
e-government, systems, and technology adoption.

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