Research Report- E-Governance

Contemporary Research on Mobile Government

Asiimwe Edgar Napoleon, M. Shakhawat Hossain Bhuiyan

Abstract: Continuous developments in mobile technology have led to massive acquisition and adoption of mobile devices at a fast pace. The penetration of mobile use is higher in developing countries than that in developed countries. The emerging developments as well as rapid adaptability of mobile technologies have raised research interests in the field of mobile government (m-Government). The aim of this study is to investigate the current status of mobile government research. This study is based on literature reviews. Different terms describing m-Government were used as keywords to retrieve relevant literature published in leading international journals and reputed conference proceedings. Then the main thematic views of each retrieved literature have explored. The papers addressing similar thematic views in terms of contents and contributions grouped in order to compare the research works. It is expected that this study will contribute putting different themes together to show research similarities as well as differences. In-depth examination of the unit of analysis for each article will further articulate the dimension of the research domain. Thus, the study will provide researchers with extended understanding of research trends on m-Government. Keywords: M-Government, mobile government, mobile e-Government, m-Government services.

1. Introduction Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) usages in public sectors emerged in late 1990 as a result of internet boom (Grönlund & Horan, 2005). Practices that involve use of ICTs by public sectors are referred to as electronic government (Heeks, 2006; Trimi & Sheng, 2008). M-Government is one of electronic government practices. Such practices are vital in government services delivery- for example, buying transportation tickets using mobile phones in some developed countries. It is not so long that research community...