Identify Critical and Constraining Factors in the Adoption & Uses of ICT Initiatives in Thai Ministry of Agriculture (Research Paper Sample)

Identify Critical and Constraining Factors in the Adoption & Uses of ICT Initiatives in Thai Ministry of Agriculture and Cooperatives
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Aim and Context of Project
The electronic government (aka e-government) has been of great prominence and attention across the globe due to rapid growth in information and communication technologies (ICT). This is underlined by e-Government United Nation survey (United Nations, 2012), e-government can be an engine of development to advance sustainable development in various domains to strengthen public service and advance equitable, people-centered development. The number of e-government initiatives has increased across many developed and developing countries. Despite this, it is very crucial for governments across the globe to rethink in the context of e-government and e-governance by putting strong emphasis on integration among distributed government structure in a bid to create interaction for broad sustainable development (United Nations, 2012; Carter and Belanger, 2004; Beckinsale and Ram, 2006; Jaeger and Matteson, 2009 ).
In the context of developing countries, the e-governments projects have various failure rates such as 35% of total failures, 50% of partial failures and 15% successful projects (Heeks, 2003; Dada, 2006). There are various reasons behind the failure rate such as limited IT skills and training, lack of resource and infrastructure, lack of awareness, lack of adoption, non-technical and country specific factors (Dada, 2006). The success rate of e-government is dependent on citizen willingness and external factors, and it has significant impacts when it is fully adopted. The integration of e-government promises massive advantages, prospects and growth. However, regardless of these promising prospects and growth, developing countries have seen various challenging factors towards the adoption of ICT (United Nations, 2012: Khan et al, 2012). The factors influencing the adoption and use of ICT range from cultural, economic, environmental, ethical, legal, and social. Moreover, the context of the challenging factors changes from sector to sector such as in the context of government. Furthermore, challenging factors vary from technological knowledge to confidential information and transparency to work among others. Consequently, it is crucial to identify, understand and analyze these various influencing factors and their impact on the adoption and use of ICT Initiatives in governmental departments (Alotaibi and Wald, 2012; Kovačić, 2005; Sørnes and Stephens, 2004).
One of the countries facing such challenges is Thailand. To develop the IT infrastructure to serve government and private sectors, Thailand took initiatives in late 1980s. To overcome the failures and limited success, in 2002, the Thai government established the Ministry of Information and Communication Technology (MICT) responsible for developing and supporting electronic processes for government, commerce, industry, and education (Bhattarakosol, 2003). The ICT policies (Fundamental Plan for Information and Communication Technology of Thailand, HYPERLINK "") announced by the Thai government, highlighted five major development goals as e-government, e-commerce, e-industry, e-education, and e-society. It was believed that these goals would provide a framework for organization in Thai to develop their system.
Regardless of these policies and goals, one of the biggest challenges is to adopt and use of e-government initiatives in various governmental departments including The Ministry of Agriculture and Cooperatives (MOAC) (). The adoption of e-government promises an effective transition where governmental departments will be more responsive, efficient and accessible to knowledge. Compare to traditional approach where manual work such as use of papers/files and efforts require managing has shown various disadvantages in terms of inefficiency, lack of management, knowledge management, collaboration and accessibility (Mehrtens et al, 2001). With the adoption of ICT, where majority of government's activities will take place as e-services, will help to overcome these challenges. In addition, in this competitive world, staff regularly takes effective changes in order to avail better perspective. It increases in-efficiency, poor performance and collaboration due to inappropriate training practices and knowledge management as the new staff joins. The integration of ICT in e-government services for knowledge management and retention will help to overcome this critical factor. Therefore, it is very crucial for Thai government and policy makers to understand and identify the potential strategies for adopting ICT in MOAC and relevant critical influencing factors.
Aim and Objectives
The aim of this research is to identify key driving and constraining factors, including some obstacles of ICT adoption and their contextual significance and implications to e-government policy-makers in the context of Thailand’s MOAC department.
Along with the massive development on the adoption of e-government, there has been large number of studies to identify critical factors towards its adoption. However, the literature still highlight the research required for comprehensive understanding of the critical factors and their impact on the adoption and initiatives for ICT in different context around the globe. Moreover, in the context of Thai e-government, the adoption of ICT is still under-research and therefore highlights strong challenges (Pansak, 2004).
With the aim to examine critical factors influencing e-government adoption, use, and development of e-government in Thailand’s MOAC department, the research main research question will be:
What are the main difficulties encountered in the adoption & uses of the Government Fiscal Management Information System (GFMIS) in the Thai Ministry of Agriculture and Cooperatives (MOAC)?
Contribution to knowledge
Contribution to Knowledge (Academic Contribution)
Most studies, however, have addressed e-government implementations in the developed world (in particular, Europe and the USA) and, while a number of studies have looked at Asian initiatives, very few studies have looked at e-government implementation in Thailand specifically. Consistently, these studies have identified investments required, institutional reforms and the application of technology choice as major problems encountered and, consequently, as significant contributors to project failure such as the case of Jordan. It may well be that Thailand’s situation mirrors experiences elsewhere. However, there is no reason to assume that this is the case, and in particular Nuangjamnong et al (2010) have identified that the Thai culture is unique in many respects and this alone could negate external validity arguments based on the current literature. Thailand is developing country and is characterized by lack of ICT infrastructure in education and agricultural sectors, which makes the deployment of e-government systems challenging. The challenges involved have been debated in various ways, which means that there is need for an in-depth study to identify and understand the critical factors in the implementation of e-government systems. This study will test the extent to which findings from previous work can and indeed be applied within Thailand. There is a literature gap regarding the deployment of e-government systems in Thailand; therefore, this study will contribute to the body of knowledge that is specific to Thailand by specifically analyzing internal factors that impact e-government adoption. Most of the studies done of e-government adoption have been done in developed countries and Thailand is a developing country, which present unique challenges to adoption.
Statement of Significance (Practical Contribution)
The findings disseminated through publications will help communities Thailand and across the world to understand and implement or replace polices/strategies towards the adoption of ICT in their respective sectors.
The significance of this research can be identified from the fact that government communities and especially agriculture sector / MOAC’s seven cooperative can be boosted with best practices of ICT to support their capacities increasing the efficiency, productivity, and sustainability to better represent their presence. Generally, the majority of Thailand’s labor force works in the agricultural sector. However, the relative input of agriculture to GDP has declined over the recent past hence the need to develop interventions to salvage the existing condition. With regard to 2012 financial estimates, the agricultural sector contributed approximately 13% of the entire GDP. Agricultural sector involves risks and uncertainties and there is huge gap between information residing in agricultural knowledge centers and government and end user communities. This gap is critical and therefore it is fundamental requirement for MOAC to fill this gap to enhance the performance and knowledge management by providing MOAC a central IT unit to integrate broadly dispersed information, up...