The Influence of Context on Participatory E-Government Applications: A Comparison of E-Government Adoption in Romania and South Korea

Abstract

This article assesses how contextual factors influence participatory applications of e-government. While the pursuit of participatory e-government projects is increasingly advocated, little research to date has attempted to investigate whether such applications of e-government are feasible across all national contexts. In particular, this research will focus upon assessing how the political, economic, and social characteristics of a particular government’s context influence the introduction of participatory applications of e-government. To explore the relationships between contextual factors and applications of e-government, we compare participatory e-government applications in Romania and South Korea. These nations were selected because they possess important similarities and differences related to their political, social, and economic contexts. As an attempt to fill this dearth in existing literature, the research question this study investigates is how certain contextual features serve to influence the adoption of participatory applications of e-government. Our findings suggest that the success of participatory e-government projects is to a large extent contingent upon political and economic contexts, while being less related to social contexts.