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Top1.0 Introduction
The growth of internet has transformed businesses and industries. Many businesses today have incorporated e-business as part of their business models and strategies. The transformation in the business models is not only in the private sector, but also in the public sector. Increasingly, government are beginning to make use of the internet to interact with its citizens. The application of internet in government operations is known as e-government (Lean et al., 2009). E-government can be in the form of digital interactions between government and its citizen, government to businesses, and between government agencies.
Like many developing countries, the Malaysian government has been investing in e-government (Lean et al., 2009). One reason why the government invested in e-government is to increase the transparency in its administrative procedures and decision makings, as well as being able to deliver its services to its citizens and businesses efficiently (Arduini et al., 2010). Although Malaysia is still a developing country, it has placed a lot of emphasis on the developments of information technologies (Chong & Ooi, 2008). One of the key aims of the Malaysian government is to achieve developed nation status by the year 2020, and information technologies and multimedia are part of the nation’s strategy to achieve the plan. In order to realize the aim, the Malaysian government has driven the information technologies sector by implementing the Multimedia Super Corridor (MSC) initiative. The idea of the MSC is similar to the Silicon Valley in the United States, whereby the Malaysia government has designated areas that focused on the development of information technologies. There are several “flagship applications” that are part of the overall MSC strategic plans. One of the flagship applications is e-government. The e-government initiative was started by the Malaysian government in 2004 (Lean et al., 2009). Some of the Malaysian e-government applications include allowing users to submit their taxes online, checking and paying their traffic offenses fines, and paying electricity and water bills. Although e-government applications from the Malaysian government have started in 2004, its adoption by the Malaysian citizens remains low (Lean et al., 2009). Malaysia’s e-government adoptions remained behind countries such as Singapore, Taiwan, and Hong Kong (Lean et al., 2009).
Like many developing countries, Malaysia is a country that is in transitions from being a developing nation to a developed nation. However, in order to achieve efficiencies in the government, one way to do so is through e-government. The information technologies infrastructure in Malaysia is well developed, and many of its citizens have access to the Internet and many are even using mobile devices to access the internet (Wei et al., 2009). Although existing literature have being conducted to study on the adoptions of e-government (Arduini et al., 2010; Bélanger & Carter, 2008; Gilbert et al., 2004), most of these studies have been conducted in western countries or in developed nations. There has been few studies which have focused on fast growing, developing nations such as Malaysia. In order to bridge the gap in existing research in e-government studies, this research aims to investigate the factors that affect the adoptions of e-government in Malaysia.