Mobile infrastructure quality, regulatory quality, government effectiveness: Does e-government development matter?

Abstract

There is a great deal of interest in how mobile infrastructure quality, regulatory quality, and a nation's capacity to develop efficient e-government systems affect government effectiveness. The literature ignores the part electronic government plays in either the regulatory quality-government effectiveness or mobile infrastructure quality-government effectiveness nexuses, despite the fact that existing research indicates that the effects of these factors on government effectiveness vary across nations. Secondary data for 52 African nations was extracted from World Governance Indicator (WGI), Mobile Connectivity Index (MCI), and United Nations E-government Database to empirically investigate the mediating relationship of e-governments using hypothesized model. The positivist paradigm is considered appropriate for this study because it focuses on validating and testing a hypothesized model. The results show a significant relationship between mobile infrastructure quality and e-government development, regulatory quality and e-government development, e-government and government effectiveness. However, there was no significant relationship between mobile infrastructure quality and government effectiveness. Additionally, e-government was found to mediate the relationship between regulatory quality and government effectiveness and the relationship between mobile infrastructure quality and government effectiveness. This suggests that government effectiveness is enhanced when a country is able to develop and implement a good electronic system. The successful implementation of e-governance practices offers better delivery of services to citizens, improved interactions with business, citizen empowerment through access to information, greater convenience, and cost reductions. In addition, establishing protections and legal reforms will be needed to ensure, among other things, the privacy, security and legal recognition of electronic interactions and electronic signatures.