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research-article

Public sector digital transformation barriers: : A developing country experience

Authors:

Wasana Bandara,

Rebekah EdenAuthors Info & Claims

Information Polity, Volume 28, Issue 1

Pages 5 - 27

https://doi.org/10.3233/IP-220017

Published: 01 January 2023 Publication History

Abstract

Influenced by the global uptake of digital transformations, governments in developing countries are making considerable investments in digital transformation initiatives; however, these often result in very high failure rates. The overall purpose of this study is to identify why digital transformations in the public sector of developing country contexts fail. This paper reports on a rich revelatory case study of a Sri Lankan government agency that experienced digital transformation failure. Data was collected primarily via semi-structured interviews and augmented with document analysis that enabled us to derive deep insights into why digital transformations fail. We identified 23 failure factors which were grouped into 5 meta-themes, namely, Organisational, Implementing Agency, Cultural, Leadership and Macro-Level Factors, forming a failure factor model. The analysis also unveiled complex interrelationships between these themes/factors, which formed the basis for 6 evidence-supported propositions detailed in the paper. The findings will benefit public sector organizations in developing countries and their implementation partners to effectively plan their digital transformation strategies.

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Cited By

Tinjan MÅhlén RHammelev Jörgensen SMagnusson J(2023)Affording and Constraining Digital Transformation:Electronic Government10.1007/978-3-031-41138-0_26(414-430)Online publication date: 5-Sep-2023
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1007/978-3-031-41138-0_26

Index Terms

Public sector digital transformation barriers: A developing country experience
1. Applied computing
  1. Computers in other domains
    1. Computing in government
  2. Enterprise computing
2. Social and professional topics
  1. Computing / technology policy
  2. Professional topics
    1. Management of computing and information systems

Index terms have been assigned to the content through auto-classification.

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cover image Information Polity

Information Polity Volume 28, Issue 1

2023

150 pages

ISSN:1570-1255

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© 2023 – IOS Press. All rights reserved.

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IOS Press

Netherlands

Publication History

Published: 01 January 2023

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Cited By

Tinjan MÅhlén RHammelev Jörgensen SMagnusson J(2023)Affording and Constraining Digital Transformation:Electronic Government10.1007/978-3-031-41138-0_26(414-430)Online publication date: 5-Sep-2023
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1007/978-3-031-41138-0_26

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