Cultural Drivers and Barriers to the Adoption of E-government in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia A Thesis submitted to the University of Manchester for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy In the Faculty of Humanities 2012 Ghada Abdulaziz AL-Sowayegh Faculty of Humanities TABLE OF CONTENTS TABLE OF CONTENTS ........................................................................... 2 LIST OF TABLES ...................................................................................... 6 LIST OF FIGURES .................................................................................... 7 ABSTRACT ................................................................................................. 8 DECLARATION ......................................................................................... 9 COPYRIGHT STATEMENT .................................................................. 10 DEDICATION .......................................................................................... 12 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS .................................................................... 13 LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS AND ACRONYMS ............................. 14 1 CHAPTER ONE: AREA OF CONCERN ....................................... 15 1.1 INTRODUCTION ................................................................................................................................. 15 1.2 STATEMENT OF THE PROBLEM ............................................................................................................. 16 1.3 PREVIOUS STUDIES ............................................................................................................................ 16 1.4 AREA OF CONCERN (RESEARCH PROBLEM) ............................................................................................. 17 1.5 APPROACH AND PROCEDURES FOR THIS STUDY ....................................................................................... 20 1.6 THE RESEARCH BACKGROUND ............................................................................................................. 22 1.7 RESEARCH MOTIVATIONS AND SIGNIFICANCE ......................................................................................... 24 1.8 RESEARCH AIM AND OBJECTIVES .......................................................................................................... 27 1.9 RESEARCH QUESTIONS ....................................................................................................................... 28 1.10 THESIS STRUCTURE ....................................................................................................................... 28 1.11 CHAPTER CONCLUSION .................................................................................................................. 30 2 CHAPTER TWO: CASE STUDY RESEARCH CONTEXT ....... 31 2.1 INTRODUCTION ................................................................................................................................. 31 2.2 BACKGROUND OF THE KINGDOM OF SAUDI ARABIA ................................................................................. 31 2.3 TECHNOLOGY IN THE KINGDOM OF SAUDI ARABIA ................................................................................... 43 2.4 PREVIOUS RELATED WORK ................................................................................................................. 46 2.5 CONCLUSION ................................................................................................................................... 49 3 CHAPTER THREE: LITERATURE REVIEW ............................ 50 2 3.1 INTRODUCTION ................................................................................................................................. 50 3.2 BASIC CONCEPTS OF E-GOVERNMENT ................................................................................................... 51 3.3 THE SIGNIFICANCE OF CULTURE IN THIS RESEARCH STUDY ......................................................................... 58 3.4 BASIC CONCEPTS OF CULTURE ............................................................................................................. 59 3.5 DIMENSIONS OF ARAB CULTURE .......................................................................................................... 69 3.6 DRIVERS AND BARRIERS TO E-GOVERNMENT DEVELOPMENT ..................................................................... 78 3.7 CONCLUSION ................................................................................................................................... 96 4 CHAPTER FOUR: THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK ................. 97 4.1 INTRODUCTION ................................................................................................................................. 97 4.2 REVIEW OF RELEVANT FRAMEWORKS .................................................................................................... 97 4.3 RESEARCH BACKGROUND AND THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK ....................................................................... 98 4.4 FRAMEWORK DEVELOPMENT PROCESS.................................................................................................. 99 4.5 CRITICISM OF E-GOVERNMENT STAGE-MODELS ..................................................................................... 102 4.6 SELECTED METHOD TO EMPLOY ......................................................................................................... 103 4.7 E-GOVERNMENT ADOPTION AND CULTURE .......................................................................................... 105 4.8 THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK (E-ACCEPTANCE FRAMEWORK) .................................................................... 106 4.9 THE CONCEPT OF E-ACCEPTANCE ....................................................................................................... 107 4.10 PRACTICAL IMPLICATIONS ............................................................................................................ 110 4.11 PROPOSED E-ACCEPTANCE FRAMEWORK ........................................................................................ 111 4.12 E-ACCEPTANCE FRAMEWORK APPLICATION AND ITS VALUE ................................................................ 114 4.13 TOWARDS ACHIEVING E-ACCEPTANCE AND E-GOVERNMENT SUCCESS .................................................. 117 4.14 CONCLUSION ............................................................................................................................. 118 5 CHAPTER FIVE: RESEARCH METHODOLOGY ................... 119 5.1 INTRODUCTION ............................................................................................................................... 119 5.2 DIFFERENT UNDERLYING PHILOSOPHICAL PARADIGMS ........................................................................... 119 5.3 RESEARCH APPROACHES ................................................................................................................... 123 5.4 QUALITATIVE RESEARCH METHODS .................................................................................................... 127 5.5 QUALITATIVE TECHNIQUES FOR DATA COLLECTION ................................................................................ 131 5.6 PHILOSOPHICAL WORLDVIEW PROPOSED IN THIS STUDY ......................................................................... 132 5.7 RESEARCH METHOD SELECTION AND JUSTIFICATION .............................................................................. 134 5.8 THE RATIONALE OF THE QUALITATIVE APPROACH .................................................................................. 135 5.9 THE RATIONALE OF THE CASE STUDY .................................................................................................. 140 5.10 CHOICE OF UNIT OF ANALYSIS....................................................................................................... 143 5.11 CHOICE OF SINGLE-CASE VS. MULTIPLE-CASE DESIGNS...................................................................... 143 5.12 CHOICE OF SITE.......................................................................................................................... 145 5.13 BRIEFING THE THREE ORGANIZATIONS ............................................................................................ 146 3 5.14 DIFFICULTY OF RESEARCH AND ACCESS ISSUES ................................................................................. 147 5.15 CHOICE OF DATA COLLECTION TECHNIQUES AND PROCEDURES ........................................................... 154 5.16 ETHICAL ISSUES .......................................................................................................................... 158 5.17 CONCLUSION ............................................................................................................................. 159 6 CHAPTER SIX: DATA ANALYSIS ............................................. 160 6.1 INTRODUCTION ............................................................................................................................... 160 6.2 DIFFERENT APPROACHES TO QUALITATIVE DATA ANALYSIS ..................................................................... 160 6.3 DIFFERENT APPROACHES TOWARDS ANALYZING QUALITATIVE DATA ......................................................... 161 6.4 CRITERIA FOR CHOOSING DATA ANALYSIS APPROACH ............................................................................ 164 6.5 QUALITATIVE RESEARCH EVALUATION ................................................................................................