An Empirical Assessment of Common Fundamentals In National E-Readiness Frameworks

While e-business and e-government are becoming drivers for the socioeconomic modernization of nations, much remains to be learned about the economic, political, and infrastructural factors associated with nations' e-business and e-government activity. In recent years, numerous e-readiness frameworks - derived in large part from theory in developmental and institutional socioeconomics - have been proffered to help guide nations in these modernization efforts. The present study derives a research model based upon common variables across e-readiness frameworks as well as related prior research to investigate associations between hypothesized key national factors and reported levels of e-business and e-government activity. Six potentially key factors are identified, cascading from general national characteristics to internet-specific characteristics: general economic prosperity, technological innovativeness, and tertiary education; internet service provider competition, law, and penetration. Data made available by the World Bank, the International Telecommunications Union, UNESCO, and the World Economic Forum are used to investigate the hypothesized associations across ninety-two countries. PLS is used to analyze the models and shows that the proposed models explain substantial variance in reported e-business and e-government levels. Moreover, intriguing similarities and differences are found.