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Governance, Risk, and Compliance has become an emerging field within the IS academic community. Motivated by this research direction, the study capitalizes on the theoretical background of enterprise systems and extends the focus on governance, risk, and compliance systems’ implementation enterprise value and lifecycle. Building upon expert views on governance, risk, and compliance IS implementation projects, the analysis indicates that the three value drivers of integration, optimization, and information should be considered throughout the whole governance, risk, and compliance IS implementation lifecycle.

Purpose – As blogs have become an important information communication medium, selecting blog types that are appropriate and effective for the products they are to promote is now an important issue in corporate advertising. However, the impact of different blog types on consumers and their advertising effectiveness are issues seldom addressed in the existing literature. The purpose of this paper is to view product information that consumers post on blogs as advertisements and compares advertising effectiveness between different blog types to help enterprises properly employ blogs in their marketing campaigns. Design/methodology/approach – An experimental design was adopted, and 12 experimental contexts were designed. A valid sample of over 2,000 responses was collected to study between-group differences in advertising effectiveness. Findings – The analytical results showed between-group difference in advertising effectiveness, which indicated that blog advertising effectiveness varies with different combinations of product constructs and blog types. Research limitations/implications – The limitations of this study related to the price factor was not incorporated into the experimental model, and shopping channels were not limited. There might be a gap between the prices of the experimental products and the average expense of online shoppers. Originality/value – The study proposed a framework which can help enterprises to evaluate the type and brand awareness of a product to be promoted and to select the blog type that maximizes advertising effectiveness (perceived risk, ad attitude, brand attitude, and purchase intention) in diffusing product information.

Policy-making in the digital age is an area which needs knowledge that can be found in communities that traditionally do not connect with each other. The creation of a research community is a challenging endeavour and needs to ad-dress both physical and online elements. In communities, groups of people share some common interests and are often facilitated by interacting with each other through the Internet and face-to-face meeting (Stewart, 2010). The activities should results in a sense of feeling of belonging to the communities. In this paper we outline the community-building activities of creating a policy informatics community which were part of the FP7 eGovPoliNet project. The eGovPoliNet project community organized community building event and provided a platform for sharing experiences and knowledge, which addresses the fragmentation of research communities, as well as the fragmentation among different disciplines, by building a common network where research-ers from different disciplines and countries can interact. The aim was to en-gage different stakeholder groups to work together in exchanging ideas and information. The focus was on e-Government, information systems, complex systems, public administration and policy research and social simulation re-search communities, although persons from other research communities were also involved. The eGovPoliNet community building process consisted of three phases namely: Initiating (period 1), Growing (period 2), and Sustaining (period 3) In the initiating phase (period 1), the European and international multidisciplinary research landscape was outlined by identifying the key players in terms of ICT for Governance and Policy Modelling R&D and by determining the targeted communities. The growing phase (period 2) focused on developing the community by organising events by the project members and involving key players. New members were attracted by organising community building activities at various conferences, organising tracks, workshops, panels and PhD Colloquia. The sustaining phase (period 3) focused on maintaining the community through collaboration type events and PhD colloquia which resulted in further growth of the community. Finally, plans for future sustainability of the community were formulated. Community building is a time-intensive process, as people should gain a sense of belonging to the community. Different type of activities are appealing to different people. Following-up activities is essential, which involves people creating content and organizing events.

This is the author's accepted manuscript. The final published article is available from the link below. Copyright @ 2011 ACM, Inc. The paper highlights the importance of the e-government initiative to support the supply chain integration among Small and Medium Size Enterprises (SMEs). It has been reported that organisations need to integrate their Information Technology (IT) infrastructures to support the integration of their supply chains to increase their efficiency. However, the current research suggests that Small and Medium Size Enterprises (SMEs), due to their lack of expertise and financial resources to invest in the necessary technologies, seem to need further support from the government in their efforts to adopt IT. Therefore, the role of the government is fundamental in supporting them to adopt supply chain management technologies, especially in geographical contexts such as this of Taiwan. A case study is therefore carried out in this paper to study an initiative taken in Taiwan by the government in order to help the supply chain integration of Taiwanese IT manufacturing companies. The findings suggest that the adoption of IT by SMEs (i.e. suppliers) is very much dependent on external forces (resource-dependency view), thus the government has a very important role to play when it comes to supporting SMEs to join supply chain networks. In doing so, this research provides a broader understanding of the phenomenon of e-government initiatives to support supply chain integration in practice.

Environmental projects are large scale public sector projects which demand the participation of a number of public and private sector agents working harmoniously towards the public good. Public health and damaging environmental influences is a social problem that has attracted the attention of governments worldwide and has been seen as a stepping stone to sustainable development. In this paper we look at electromagnetic fields as health hazards and technologies that have been developed to solve these problems such as biogeometry and geographical information systems. Based on these technologies we suggest a framework for a project that that can be used to advance the research in transdisciplinary large scale projects related to public health. This framework is contributing to the knowledge of managing large scale e-government projects related to public health. Our ideas can be extended to other public sector projects as well as various geographical settings.

Flexibility is a loosely defined term used in a number of application areas with different and frequently contradicting views. In this paper, adopting as a starting point the use of the term in the manufacturing and information systems domains, we present a framework for the examination of generic objects utilizing cloud diagrams. We first portray the potential flexibility of a designed object and then its actual flexibility expressing its ability to adapt to changes. Examples of its use illustrate the ideas and their application. We believe that this research will be helpful in offering guidelines to designers of new systems where flexibility is important.

This is a post-peer-review, pre-copyedit version of an article published in the Journal of Information Technology. The definitive publisher-authenticated version is available at the link below. The Internet telephony (IP telephony) has been presented as a technology that can replace existing fixed-line services and disrupt the telecommunications industry by offering new low-priced services. This study investigates the diffusion of IP telephony in Denmark by focusing on vendors’ commercialisation strategies. The theory of disruptive innovation is introduced to investigate vendors’ perceptions about IP telephony and explore their strategies that affect the diffusion process in the residential market. The analysis is based on interview data collected from the key market players. The study's findings suggest that IP telephony is treated as a sustaining innovation that goes beyond the typical voice transmission and enables provision of advanced services such as video telephony.

BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE: Evaluation of health information systems (HIS) enables the assessment of the extent to which HIS are fulfilling their objectives in supporting the services of healthcare delivery. This paper presents an overview of evaluation in health informatics and information systems. METHODS: Literature review on discourses, dimensions and methods of HIS and IS evaluation. A critical appraisal of selected HIS and IS evaluation frameworks is undertaken in order to identify HIS evaluation dimensions and measures. The frameworks are compared based on their inclusion of human, organizational and technological factors. RESULTS: We found that an increasing number of evaluation studies deal with two distinct trends of HIS: one considers human and organizational issues and the other is concerned with the employment of a subjectivist approach. Our review indicates that current evaluation methods complement each other in that they evaluate different aspects of HIS and they can be improved upon. CONCLUSIONS: Evaluation is complex; it is easy to measure many things but not necessarily the right ones. Nevertheless, it is possible to consider, a HIS evaluation framework with more comprehensive and specific measures that would incorporate technological, human and organizational issues to facilitate HIS evaluation.

Although the broadband market has considerably matured, follow-up research on the continued adoption of broadband is yet to be conducted. The aim of this research was therefore to investigate empirically the influence of service quality and secondary influence on consumers' behavioural intention to change from their existing internet service provider (ISP) to an alternative service provider. The investigation focuses upon broadband household consumers within the UK. The study was conducted using a postal survey; a self-administered questionnaire was sent to 1600 households and a total of 358 completed replies were obtained. The results suggest that both service quality and secondary influence were significantly correlated to consumers' behavioural intentions to change ISP. The implications of these findings are presented, followed by a discussion of the limitations of this research and future research directions.

Companies when strategizing are looking for innovative ways to have a competitive advantage over their competitors. One way in which they compete is by the adoption of social media. Social media has evolved over the years and as a result, new concepts and applications are developed which promises to provide business value to a company. However, despite the usefulness of social media, many businesses fail to reap its full benefits. The current literature shows evidence of lack of strategically designed process for companies to successfully implement social media. The purpose of this study is to suggest a framework which provides the necessary alignment between social media goals with business objectives. From the literature review, a social media strategy framework was derived to offer an effective step by step approach to the development and implementation of social media goals aligned with a company’s business objectives. The contribution to this study is the development of a social media strategy framework that can be used by organisations for business value.

Interpretive flexibility is a term used to describe the diverse perspectives on what a technology is and can or can not do during the process of technological development. In this article, we look at how interpretive flexibility manifests through the diverse perceptions of stakeholders involved in the diffusion and adoption of the NHS Care Records Service (NCRS). Our analysis shows that while the policy makers acting upon the application of details related to the implementation of the system, the potential users are far behind the innovation decision process, namely at the knowledge or persuasion stages. We use data from a local heath authority from a county close to London. The research explores, compares, and evaluates contrasting views on the systems implementation at the local as well as national level. We believe that our analysis is useful for NCRS implementation strategies, in particular, and technology diffusion in large organisations, in general.

Broadband technology has been introduced to the business community and the public as a rapid way of exploiting the Internet. The benefits of its use (fast reliable connections, and always on) have been widely realised and broadband diffusion is one of the items at the top of the agenda for technology related polices of governments worldwide. In this paper an examination of the impact of the UK government's polices upon broadband adoption is undertaken. Based on institutional theory a consideration of the manipulation of supply push and demand pull forces in the diffusion of broadband is offered. Using primary and secondary data sources, an analysis of the specific institutional actions related to IT diffusion as pursued by the UK government in the case of broadband is provided. Bringing the time dimension into consideration it is revealed that the UK government has shifted its attention from supply push-only strategies to more interventional ones where the demand pull forces are also mobilised. It is believed that this research will assist in the extraction of the "success factors" in government intervention that support the diffusion of technology with a view to render favourable results if applied to other national settings.

This paper reports on preliminary findings from a wider and more in‐depth study of six traditional organizations from different sectors that have successfully introduced e‐commerce initiatives. The research adopted a case study approach, within which a questionnaire, identifying 16 generic benefits synthesized from the literature, was administered. The organizations were also asked to characterize whether e‐commerce was strategic for them or not. The findings suggest that those organizations that perceived e‐commerce to be strategic tended to consider intangible benefits as more important than tangible benefits, indicating perhaps a move away from the traditional view of e‐commerce as a marketing driver to increase or create sales. Those organizations perceiving e‐commerce as non‐strategic rated the tangible benefits in much the same way as the strategic organizations, but rated the intangibles lower. Also it was found that e‐commerce was important as a communication tool, not only with customers, as migh...

The 'digital divide' between developed and non-developed countries in terms of adoption of new technologies and particularly the Internet and electronic commerce is a heavily debated issue. In this paper we examine its manifestation in the area of south eastern Europe which is in a less advanced position compared to western Europe. We use data from 8 countries, collected from local key stakeholders such as government agencies and professional bodies. We use a framework developed by King et al. (1994) regarding institutional actions related to IT diffusion and examine the ones pursued by regional policy makers for the diffusion of electronic commerce. The data are presented by using SWOT analysis with the view to portray the situation of electronic commerce adoption in each country under investigation. A collective analysis of the research findings offers the possibility to extract the "success factors " in government intervention in supporting electronic commerce diffusion. Our aim is to provide r...

When a new technology is launched, its diffusion becomes an issue of importance. There are various stakeholders that influence diffusion. The question that remains to be determined is their identification and roles. This paper outlines how the strategies pursued by a government acting as the key stakeholder affected the diffusion of a new technology. The analysis is based on a theoretical framework derived from innovation diffusion and stakeholder theories. The empirical evidence comes from a study of broadband development in South Korea. A web of stakeholders and strategies is drawn in order to identify the major stakeholders involved and highlight their relations. The case of South Korea offers implications for other countries that are pursuing broadband diffusion strategies.

While the twentieth century is considered as the century of population explosion and burning of fossil fuels, environmental policies and the transition to effectively use renewable energy sources have become a priority of strategies in regions, countries and internationally. Different projects have been initiated to study the best suitable transition process towards renewable energy. In addition, an increasing number of climate change and energy policies is being formulated and released at distinct levels of governments. Many of these policies and projects pursue the aim of switching from energy sources like fossil fuels or nuclear power to renewable energy sources like solar, wind or water. The aim of this chapter is to provide foundations of policy implementation and particular methods as well as to investigate five policy implementation cases through a comparative analysis.

The rapid growth of electronic commerce technologies and practices has created a tremendous need for awareness creation for organisations such as small and medium‐sized enterprises which seem to lack the necessary information about technology, business practices, investment cost and human capital. Often, the professional organisers of awareness activities are also uncertain about best practice in electronic commerce awareness creation. Thus, although a number of initiatives have taken place in Europe, they have failed to produce the expected results. This paper describes how a project funded by the European Commission (WeCAN) defined and evaluated a number of awareness models in electronic commerce in order to support organisations involved in awareness creation such as chambers of commerce, consulting companies and higher educational institutions.

The revolutionary development of network technologies launched electronic commerce as a global phenomenon. Consequently, the policy issues that arise from its use create new responsibilities for policy makers world-wide. Apart from the technical (e.g. fast and reliable networks) and regulatory (e.g. legal frameworks and standardization) challenges that need to be tackled there are a number of social concerns that also need consideration. It is important for policy makers to see Internet use and electronic commerce as a social as well as a technical phenomenon. In this paper we examine how social concerns such as trust and digital democracy pertain to all levels of Internet and electronic commerce policy, posing dilemmas and influencing the construction of an effective and socially responsible strategy for electronic commerce.

Enterprise resource planning (ERP) systems are complex and comprehensive software designed to integrate business processes and functions. Despite the difficulties and risk, adopting ERP systems is expanding rapidly. Universities make large investments in information systems (IS) expecting positive impacts. However, universities are facing serious challenges in implementing the new technology. This research is a case study that seeks to explore the impact of an ERP system (MADAR system) on the stakeholder performance of King Saud University's employees. The results show that system quality factors (flexibility, compatibility, right data, currency, ease of use, and timeliness) have positive impacts on the stakeholders' performance. Furthermore, the service quality (tangible, reliability, responsiveness, and assurance) has a positive impact on the stakeholders' performance.

During the past few years organizations are moving towards the adoption of open innovation models to make use both internal and external knowledge. Recent efforts concerning open innovation involve building portfolio of relationships and networks that provide access to technology, information and knowledge. For successful open innovation implementation knowledge management (KM) strategies adopting its frameworks are important. This study investigates the critical success factors for the underlying KM frameworks in developing countries. The case of GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) has been investigated as one of the few examples of KM initiatives in Egypt. A comparison of GSK's critical success factors of its KM framework between the cases of its headquarters and its Egyptian branch, resulted in identifying a set of factors that have been customized for GSK Egypt specifically. We further argue that these newly identified, additional factors, could serve as lessons learnt for others.

Part 6: Research in Progress and Practice; International audience; Information technology especially through Internet applications provides tremendous possibilities to knowledge workers, in any domain, to get access to vast amounts of data. This is a development with great benefits but also some challenging implications. In other words, as the information available increases, the knowledge workers’ needs to make sense of information, i.e. for, prioritizing, organizing, and interpreting information intensify. Yet, the information management practices, which are based on the user’s characteristics, have not been studied extensively. In this paper we suggest the examination and explication of the information management practices used by knowledge workers today in order to provide useful insights to managers involved in IS governance in the organisation. We also introduce specific theories which can be used as a lens to analyse the knowledge workers’ practices and offer useful theoretical insights into the domain. We contend that such research could provide a set of guidelines that can be adopted by organisations in order to offer their employees a structured way to deal with information management which is supported by the information technologies and systems available. We argue that our results could be useful to knowledge workers looking to exploit available information while overcoming information overload.

Part 6: Research in Progress and Practice; International audience; This research aims to explore factors responsible for successful implementation of ERP systems in Indian organizations. The paper also aims to explore the similarities and differences in ERP system adoption between locally-owned and multinational companies in India. The data was collected from 56 project managers and business analysts with ERP expertise from both locally-owned Indian and multinational companies. The findings suggest that Business Plan and Vision, Project Management and Top Management Support were perceived as the three most important factors responsible for successful implementation. The result revealed no significant differences between Indian and multinational companies, hence indicating that both types of firms undertake the ERP implementations in the same manner.

Following an initial euphoria about the power of the information superhighway to provide better access to information and wealth for all, what we have experienced in reality instead is that information and communication technologies have created further inequalities at individual, business, national and international level. To ease the effects of this “digital divide,” policy makers have taken up the role of change agencies, influencing the public in using innovative information technologies. This chapter focuses on the role of these change agencies for technology diffusion and the elimination of the digital divide. It is argued that examining the interest of change agencies and the other stakeholders involved in the diffusion process from a normative perspective can help in the preparation of effective information technology diffusion policies.

The aim of this chapter is to outline various factors reported in the 49 chapters of this handbook of research. The aim is also to organize identified factors in a meaningful manner in order to propose a framework of broadband adoption and diffusion. This chapter illustrates the fact that research on the adoption, diffusion, usage, and impact of broadband is clearly a global issue which requires a multidisciplinary approach. The proposed framework includes three levels of factors—macro factors, individual micro factors, and SME-level micro factors. These three levels of factors are relevant at different levels of development, deployment, and diffusion of broadband which persist in various developed and developing countries. The chapter concludes by suggesting that the proposed framework is based on a comprehensive set of factors observed in various countries, and future studies may use this framework to identify gaps and then bridge those gaps by conducting new studies.

Large investments have been made by various governments for the deployment of broadband within their respective nations; however, the citizens of such countries have demonstrated a slow adoption of this technology. The Handbook of Research on Global Diffusion of Broadband Data Transmission explores broadband adoption and the digital divide through a global perspective, providing up-to-date research on constructs such as relative advantage, utilitarian outcomes, hedonic outcomes, and service quality. Compiling cutting-edge research from over 100 noted experts in nearly 30 countries, this invaluable reference source allows policy makers, internet service providers, and others to gain multicultural insight into what factors actively influence consumers decisions to adopt broadband.

Governments all over the world are encouraging broadband Internet connectivity to both residential and small business consumers. Despite large investments for developing the enabling infrastructure and the provision of access at affordable prices, however, demand for broadband has not increased the expected rate in many countries. The slow rate of broadband adoption can be viewed as being “supply constrained” in the developing world where countries are lagging behind in infrastructure development, but “demand constrained” in countries where high-speed access is already available to the majority of the population. In order to achieve greater uniformity in rates of adoption and use of broadband in both residential and small business contexts, and to reduce the digital divide, it is essential to focus upon understanding both macro- and micro-level factors influencing adoption and consequent use of broadband. The overall aim of this panel is to stimulate discussion and contribute to an understanding of the diffusion of broadband from a global perspective. In order to realise the overall aim, a number of studies from a range of different countries (including Australia, Canada, Denmark, Germany, Ireland, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, Singapore, and United Kingdom) are integrated within the panel discussion.

This paper demonstrates the importance of collaboration between government departments as a backbone for inter-organizational integration between agencies such as ministries. We argue that the challenges related to e-government adoption can be partially attributed to the lack of standard collaboration practices between government agencies. We use the case of the foreign financing decision making process in Egypt as an example of a government process where close collaboration between government agencies such as ministries and the central bank of Egypt is essential. Our research identified a number of organizational and interorganizational problems such as difficulties in tracking and documenting the decision making process across different departments within and across government agencies. Based on our empirical findings, this paper proposes a framework for effective inter-governmental collaboration in the case of the Egyptian government in particular and e-government adoption in general.

BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE: The realization of Health Information Systems (HIS) requires rigorous evaluation that addresses technology, human and organization issues. Our review indicates that current evaluation methods evaluate different aspects of HIS and they can be improved upon. A new evaluation framework, human, organization and technology-fit (HOT-fit) was developed after having conducted a critical appraisal of the findings of existing HIS evaluation studies. HOT-fit builds on previous models of IS evaluation--in particular, the IS Success Model and the IT-Organization Fit Model. This paper introduces the new framework for HIS evaluation that incorporates comprehensive dimensions and measures of HIS and provides a technological, human and organizational fit. METHODS: Literature review on HIS and IS evaluation studies and pilot testing of developed framework. The framework was used to evaluate a Fundus Imaging System (FIS) of a primary care organization in the UK. The case study was conducted through observation, interview and document analysis. RESULTS: The main findings show that having the right user attitude and skills base together with good leadership, IT-friendly environment and good communication can have positive influence on the system adoption. CONCLUSIONS: Comprehensive, specific evaluation factors, dimensions and measures in the new framework (HOT-fit) are applicable in HIS evaluation. The use of such a framework is argued to be useful not only for comprehensive evaluation of the particular FIS system under investigation, but potentially also for any Health Information System in general.

Stakeholder analysis has become popular in the management literature, since the 1980s but is usually accompanied by debate about its use and scope. Later on, the view that the consideration of various types of stakeholders is beneficiary for organisations has been borrowed by the information systems literature where it was realised that successful implementation of information systems does not depend only on technical aspects. In this paper we examine how the use of stakeholder concept can be expanded outside the boundaries of a company or a group of companies, helping at the implementation of a successful electronic commerce policy from national governments.

Actor-network theory studies provide detailed accounts of how human and nonhuman actors gradually form stable actor networks. However, due to their focus on a particular context, there is little generic guidance on how such relevant actors can be identified when a different research context is under study. The principles of (human) stakeholder behavior presented in this paper guide the identification of human stakeholders through an iterative, interpretive, dynamic and context-contingent process. We show how they can be adopted and extended to include the identification of nonhuman actants as well. Thus, we argue that they can be instrumental in providing a generic, context-free guidance to stakeholder identification that is currently missing from ANT studies.

Information technology diffusion is a complex process that has been studied from various perspectives and levels of analysis. Most studies have been done at firm level seeking to find the ways a technical innovation is introduced and used by a company. In this paper we look at the institutional layer of IT diffusion by investigating the interaction between actors in the demand and supply side of the diffusion process. We argue that stakeholder analysis is a useful tool for the examination of such interactions and we propose a framework for the investigation of the diffusion of electronic commerce. The framework can be useful for policy makers seeking to apply effective diffusion mechanisms at local, regional or national level.

Electronic Commerce over the Internet, aims to become a global conveyor belt of business transactions. Web applications of increasing sophistication emerge in almost every business sector, reflecting a variety of technical and technological approaches. In this paper we argue that system developers need to reconsider their professional practices in the context of these new technologies by taking advantage of opportunities like short response cycles and easy diffusion of systems results, while they recognise the limitations of traditional practice. We discuss a framework of IS development issues for Internet based applications and propose guidelines towards new development practices.

Manufacturers are under pressure nowadays to better manage the supply chain and to improve manufacturing efficiency and logistics operations while remaining responsive to changing market conditions and customer demands. Organisations might need to integrate their information technology (IT) infrastructures to support the integration of their supply chains and increase their efficiency. Supply chain integration is considered as an important issue as nowadays the competition among enterprises is about the efficiency of supply chain, which emphasises on tighter cooperation relationship of overall supply-chain process. Thus, this paper explores the area of supply chain integration employed by 15 Taiwan IT manufacturing companies based on case study strategy to explore how the case companies and their suppliers integrate their supply chains. In doing so, practical implications for supply chain integration adoption are explained as a way to help researchers and organisations to better understand the supply chain integration in practice.

Small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) are known to lack behind in terms of the adoption and exploitation of information and communication technology (ICT). In this paper, we explore the area of ICT adoption in the Taiwanese information technology manufacturing sector within SMEs based on a multiple case study research. The findings suggest that small enterprises were in the initial stages of the process maturity of their supply chain. Seven types of ICT connections used by the case companies to support their supply chains were identified which show that most of the companies stayed in the lower level of supplier chain management integration without exploiting the benefits of ICT in full. Our results provide a better understanding on ICT adoption for supply chain integration by SMEs in practice.

The emergence of IP telephony as a lower-priced alternative to fixed-line telephony has created a new market in the telecommunications industry. This paper presents a study of vendors' views on the key value elements of IP telephony affecting the diffusion process. The major national IP telephony vendors of a technologically advanced market – Denmark – are interviewed. The results indicate that IP telephony vendors acknowledge the importance of price, and underline physical and information investments as the main challenges. However, the vendors have shifted their attention to the development of value added services such as video telephony for business users.

Technological deterministic theories such as Diffusion of Innovations (DOIs) theory provide a useful view of the diffusion process of new technologies. However, the view provided is limited, as it mainly looks at the supply side of the diffusion process hence, the need for the ability to examine various sides that influence the diffusion of new technologies. The Social Construction of Technology (SCOT) provides an avenue to examine such views. In this paper, we examine the adoption of broadband by Small/Medium size Enterprises (SMEs) using a proposed framework that applies notions from SCOT. An initial application of the framework shows perception gaps among the social groups involved in the diffusion process of broadband. These gaps might explain the slow take up of broadband by SMEs in the UK.

Governments around the globe are rapidly introducing e-government initiatives with the role of the internet being regarded as pertinent. Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) offer the capacity to an improved internet. Broadband technology is a form of ICT that is currently being adopted and diffused in many countries. In this paper, we outline how the role of the government can sustain broadband adoption. We use a framework developed by King et al. regarding institutional actions related to IT diffusion and examine the institutional actions taken by the South Korean government (hereafter referred as Korea) and we compare them with relevant policies pursued in Britain (hereafter referred as UK). We demonstrate that a comparison between the IT policies of the two countries allows research to extract the 'success factors' in government intervention in supporting technology diffusion, in order to render favourable results if applied elsewhere.

This paper considers the role governments and public sector organisations can play in promoting organisational competitiveness in electronic commerce using case evidence from three different European national contexts. The research indicates that stakeholder involvement can be critical for the adoption of systems by intended users and explores two alternative development scenarios for project management in the public sector. Both development scenarios represent approaches that have been adopted in practice with mixed results. The paper illustrates the importance of stakeholder analysis and stakeholder involvement in the development process. In particular, we argue that the consideration of a broad range of stakeholder perspectives is essential for establishing the public sector as a capable change agent for organisational competitiveness in electronic commerce.

Although Governance, Risk and Compliance (GRC) is an emerging field of study within the information systems (IS) academic community, the concept behind the acronym has to still be demystified and further investigated. The study investigates GRC systems in depth by (a) reviewing the literature on existing GRC studies, and (b) presenting a field study on views about GRC application by professional experts. The aim of this exploratory study is to understand the aspects and the nature of the GRC system following an enterprise systems approach. The result of this study is a framework of particular GRC characteristics that need to be taken into consideration when these systems are put in place. This framework includes specific areas such as: goals and objectives, purpose of the system, key stakeholders, methodology and requirements prior to implementation, critical success factors and problems/barriers. Further discussion about the issues, the concerns and the diverse views on GRC would assist in developing an agenda for the future research on the GRC field. Konstantina Spanaki would like also to acknowledge Grant EP/ K039504/1 from Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC) which funded part of this research.