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In view of their significance as well as influence, this article aims to examine knowledge management (KM) mechanisms in 20 Iranian e‐government portals used to provide services to citizens.

Using the model “knowledge access, creation and transfer” (K‐ACT), a checklist was developed. This checklist was then applied to demonstrate its utility for evaluating 20 Persian‐language official e‐government portals in Iran.

The maximum score for the knowledge mechanism was 30 for knowledge creation. The mean score for KM in Iran e‐government portals was 26 per cent. This percentage indicates that e‐government portals in Iran are very poor.

Iranian e‐government portals and Iran governors must consider some features in their decisions about portal design. This area requires further work, in particular in elaborating the relationship between e‐government and KM. In addition, planning strategically with key experts to design new models for the adoption of KM in e‐government is of high importance. These experts can be computer specialists, knowledge managers, librarians, portal designers and users of portals.

This study provides an insight into the situation of KM processes in the portals of Iranian ministries.

This study aims to explore the key factors in achieving an efficient e-government portal management system from a citizen perspective. Accordingly, this study focuses on explaining how an e-government portal should manage its digital public services for citizens efficiently.

This study employs a qualitative research design. As a sample case, this study preferred to analyze the Turkish e-government portal. The data is based on available open access data and information from the Turkish e-government portal, which is called e-Government Gateway in practice. In addition, the data of TURKSTAT (Turkish Statistical Institute) were used to determine the general profile of citizens about Internet skills and usage. Then, the data is analyzed by descriptive content analysis.

As a result of descriptive findings, user type, digital platform options, security and access options, and digital public service classification are all found as important factors for providing a well-designed e-government portal system from a citizen perspective. Especially, citizens should be informed about using options and service categories and types to be accessed by the e-government portal. Social media tools are efficient factors when informing citizens about the e-government portal and communicating with them.

This study provides an original model to explain how the Turkish e-government portal works from a citizen perspective. However, there are some limitations to the study. The findings and suggestions are based on the Turkish e-government portal and its digital public service management. Also, this study evaluates the efficiency of the e-government portal management from a citizen perspective. Future studies can investigate e-government portal management for different countries by different approaches or research designs.

Based on the Turkey case, it is determined that creating an e-government portal with having up-to-date public services, including both web-based and mobile-based platforms, will support the adoption and use of e-government portals.

The digital transformation of government is almost the main issue for policymakers in the world. But, this transformation process has some risk factors as well as challenges. To overcome these challenges, policymakers should design flexible and adaptable digital portals and systems to provide easy-to-use and self-use options for the citizens.

This study reveals key factors for efficient e-government portal management by providing descriptive evidence from Turkey. The main contribution of this study is expected to give practical implications and to guide other countries about the adoption of efficient e-government portals by citizens.

Knowledge management (KM) is an important consideration in e‐government portals to ensure that knowledge flows efficiently between governments, individuals and organisations. A crucial aspect of e‐government portals that has not been addressed adequately is the extent to which KM mechanisms have been implemented. Specifically, the authors argue that appropriate KM mechanisms are necessary to support the access, creation and transfer of knowledge between these portals and their users. The paper aims to propose an evaluation model for this purpose by first defining the main KM mechanisms and then burrowing deeper into their constituent dimensions.

An evaluation model known as knowledge access, creation and transfer (K‐ACT) is presented which identifies three KM mechanisms for portals: knowledge access, creation and transfer. Each mechanism is characterised by a set of dimensions and sub‐dimensions representing the tools and features for supporting that mechanism. The model was derived from an analysis of the literature and validated by two independent reviewers who were trained in information science, were familiar with the objectives of the project and understood the concepts underlying KM implementation in portals. Using this model, a checklist was developed and applied to 60 e‐government portals in the Asian and North American regions to investigate the extent to which these KM mechanisms have been implemented.

The findings indicate that, on average, e‐government portals featured only about 36 per cent of the KM mechanisms described in the model. Furthermore, no significant differences in the implementation of the KM mechanisms were found between the two regions' portals. The evaluation also offered potential areas for improvement based on the K‐ACT model.

The present work has developed an evaluation model known as K‐ACT which can be used to assess KM implementation gaps in e‐government portals. This model can also be generalised to other types of portals. The evaluation also provides insights into the state of KM processes in the portals of the Asian and North American regions.

The purpose of this paper is to overview key features of grid portals and e‐government portals and assess the potential for using features of the former in the latter. In the context of this paper, grid portals are defined as graphical user interfaces that a user employs to interact with one or more grid infrastructural resources.

The paper classifies grid portals in five categories and two development frameworks and based on this classification overviews ten existing grid portals. The overview covers, where possible, the developers, the objective, the implementation, and the features of the considered grid portals. For e‐government, the paper focuses on the overview of a typical e‐government portal and best design practices. Based on the overview of grid portals and the typical e‐government portal, the paper assesses the potential benefit of grid portals in meeting the critical success factors for e‐government identified as: integration, knowledge management, personalization, and customer engagement. The results are tabulated, analysed, and discussed.

Many of the features of existing grid portals have the potential to be used within an e‐government portal, but the lack of any in‐depth study of the nature of the e‐government application domain (from a technical and social perspective) in‐line with grid development makes this potential far from reachable at this stage. This is disappointing but does highlight opportunities.

This paper motivates a greater in‐depth analysis and study of the potential use of the grid for e‐government. The grid infrastructure promises solutions to various applications domains including e‐government.

This paper explored the potential of a technology infrastructure for e‐government. This exploration is based on a novel dual overview and evaluation of the technology and the application domain. The paper can be a basis and a reference for further research in different areas including, among others: technology infrastructures for e‐government, grid development for various application domains, benchmarking of grid utility and usability for various application domains, grid gateways, and emerging technologies to meet the critical success factors for e‐government.

E‐government implementation evolves through different stages of maturity, enforcing changes in strategies at each level. The transitions of service maturity phases pose continuous challenges to service providers in assessing the e‐service quality of web‐based services used in government. This study is conducted to propose a multi item scale for assessing the e‐service quality of government portals involving transactions.

Factors influencing the e‐service quality of government portals were identified from an extensive review of research performed by academic scholars and practitioners. A questionnaire was designed based on a review and interviews with users of e‐government applications and was used to conduct a survey of fully operational portals. Responses were obtained and quantitative analyses were performed on the data to develop a scale. This scale can help in evaluating citizen perceived quality of e‐services.

Seven constructs – i.e. citizen centricity, transaction transparency, technical adequacy, usability, complete information, privacy and security and usefulness of information – were identified from the analyses, which can be used to assess the demand side service quality of government portals.

Despite a well‐structured, national‐level plan on e‐government and adequate funding in India, most of the projects under the scheme are far below the expectation level of citizens. Technology‐enabled applications have promised easy access to government services with economic gain in certain cases, but they have not ensured citizens' satisfaction. Improved service quality based on citizens' need and expectation can reduce the gap between design and reality and act as positive trigger for adoption of e‐government. This study can help government portal developers get an insight into users' needs to improve the design and implementation of online services. The issues are significant and cannot be overlooked in practice.

The paper is original and a research study. It provides an understanding of citizens' perceived quality of e‐services and adoption behavior within the framework of the web‐based environment of government services.

This paper aims to explore the emerging trends of e-government in Pakistan with an empirical investigation of the e-government websites and the services they provide to the citizens of Pakistan. It also investigates the level of development of these e-government websites in the Punjab Web portal. The governments in Asian countries, including Pakistan, have been struggling to switch their services from traditional on-spot services to online services. Focal points of the study are development level of e-government websites, available e-services and quality.

The e-government Web portal of Punjab province with 38 websites is center of attention in present study. Website’s content analysis method is used to study e-government websites (N = 38) from the Punjab Web portal. It used the “Four-Stage Development Model” for the four stages, namely, “publishing”, “interacting”, “transacting” and “transforming”, to study the phenomena.

The findings showed that most of the websites on the Web portal were at the first (publishing) and second (interacting) stage of development. For the provision of effective online services, websites need to be on the third (transacting) and fourth (transforming) stage. Only a few websites in the Punjab Web portal were the on transacting and transforming stages providing a mature level of services. In total, 40 different types of services are identified in 38 websites of Punjab e-government Web portal.

E-government, Web portals are developed to give citizens a single, easy access point to several departments’ websites and their services. This baseline study recommends to update e-government websites periodically and put more focus on technological and contextual features to enhance the accessibility and usability of the websites.

This is first empirical study of e-government websites to explore their services and examine existing level of website development in this region.

E-government websites/portals are effective modes of communication between governments and citizens. The information quality (IQ) of these websites/portals is of vital importance and, hence, is worth assessing, to ensure their effectiveness. This study aims to assess the IQ dimensions of e-government websites/portals in Pakistan and also evaluate the most significant IQ indicators.

This study used a quantitative research method based on a survey. The data were collected from a sample of young citizens, and a questionnaire was adopted from a previous study by Kandari, et al. (2011) with minor changes to reflect the local context.

The findings revealed that out of 20 IQ indicators, 14 were rated 4 or 5 on a five-point Likert scale, indicating a reasonably high IQ for Pakistani e-government websites/portals. Value-added, “accessibility” and “objectivity” were the top three indicators, while timeliness, ease of operation and advertisement were the least rated indicators, suggesting that these need to be addressed. The findings of the study also revealed that IQ indicators are not affected by the different age groups of citizens.

The focus of this study was limited to university students to understand their perceptions about IQ indicators of e-government websites in Pakistan, and the results can only be generalized to young Pakistani citizens and the developing countries with a similar context.

This study could provide some guidance to policy makers and websites designers in the development of e-government websites according to users’ needs and identifying the ways to regularly maintain and update these websites.

This study provides an understanding of the IQ of Pakistani e-government websites from the citizens’ perspective. It attempts to fill that gap and produce findings that could assist in making informed policy decisions.

The purpose of this research is to examine the impact of organizational factors on the adoption of interoperability technology for Indian portals.

This exploratory study was conducted through a survey questionnaire from 300 portals of government departments and public sector undertakings (PSUs) in India. Data were also collected from portals of Indian companies.

The study finds that adoption of interoperability for Indian portals is highly associated with certain organizational factors. In addition, multiple regression analysis reveals that the functionalities of government portals in India are significantly related to four organizational factors.

The research provides insights for government officials and practitioners to understand and improve the level of interoperability in government portals. The study also provides a 2 by 2 matrix framework that helps the government officials to focus on the relevant organizational factors.

This study is the first to examine the effect of organizational factors on interoperability adoption in Indian portals. The results lead to a number of recommendations for achieving interoperability for government portals in India.

The purpose of this study is to examine the position of interoperability of government and corporate portals in technological adoption space in India in terms of three critical dimensions: data integration, process integration and communication integration.

This exploratory study was conducted through a survey questionnaire from 300 portals of government departments and public sector undertakings (PSUs) in India. Data were also collected from portals of Indian companies and the results have been compared with those of the government portals.

The results show that the majority of government portals in India have initiated integration. Second, the portals of Indian companies are performing better than the portals of government and PSUs for achieving an interoperable position. Third, there is high dispersion in level of integration of government portals in India.

The portals with the lowest level of integration in government in India will determine when government will actually attain full horizontal integration and hence achieve an interoperable portal as there is high dispersion in level of integration of government portals in India. Also, for achieving an interoperable government portal, an organization needs to focus on the weakest factors of each dimension.

This study is the first to examine the position of interoperability in technological adoption space in India. The results lead to a number of recommendations for achieving interoperability for government portals in India. The study also highlights the weakest factors of each dimension that require more improvement than other factors.

Conventional wisdom about the digital divide maintains that per capita income, education, age and access to technology are its main causes and also the main barriers to internet access. The purpose of this study is to evaluate the validity of that claim in the case of the Isle of Man (IOM).

A nominalist ontology and positivist epistemology characterizes the underpinning research philosophy for this case study. Research data consisted of secondary census instruments and primary data derived from interviews with a sample of IOM civil servants.

The findings were that despite having better results in terms of the causes of digital divide, the IOM trailed the UK level of internet access to a significant degree. This result raises questions about the wisdom of basing digital divide and e‐government strategies on technology proliferation and economic indicators.

The IOM is a comparatively small entity compared to the UK. In addition, basing the primary data collected on IOM civil servants only may result in an element of bias.

Many governments invest considerable sums of money on their digital divide and e‐government programmes which may be misdirected if they are addressing the wrong causes of it.

This paper evaluates an issue which normally requires the resources of government or institutions in order to research it.