Many researches are conducted to identify CSFs for ERP implementation in developed countries with focus on the organizational factors only. However, there is a lack of researches that identified how environmental factors affect the success of ERP systems in developing countries. This research investigates how environmental and organizational factors affect the success of ERP implementation in developing countries with focus on the organizations working in Egypt. Both qualitative and quantitative approaches are used to collect data from IT managers. Findings show that national factors such as economic growth, government regulations and ICT infrastructure should be considered in addition to organizational factors to have a significant impact for the success of ERP implementation.

Electronic democracy (e-democracy) is a way to engage citizens and politicians with their government through the use of Information and Communication Technology (ICTs) tools. Although the concept of e-democracy has been growing during the past years, few studies have examined how to achieve success of e-democracy via social networks. This research is answering the following question: How social networks support the local government decision making to enhance e-democracy? To answer the research question, a proposed model was introduced and a survey method was employed. Findings showed that governments could use social networks to facilitate awareness of information among citizens and support citizens in building their communities. Furthermore, social networks would help to facilitate deliberation among citizens. However, this should be supported with appropriate level of involvements from the government side in the discussion to provide support. Through this, governments could enhance their decision making.

Online shopping has become the third most popular Internet activity after using e-mails and entertainment. An important type of online shopping is online consumer to consumer auction (C2C) where consumers are able to sell and buy directly online. Although C2C online auctions could be an opportunity to enhance e-commerce in developing countries, many internet users are not willing to use it. This research explores the factors that could lead to more users’ intention to use C2C auction websites in Egypt as an example of the developing countries. A conceptual model is introduced based on the technology acceptance model which was tested via a survey. Findings indicate that the perceived usefulness of using C2C auction websites have a significant impact on users’ intention to use C2C website. This should be supported with appropriate security measures that could lead to more trustable C2C auction websites.

Many developing countries have introduced e-Government projects to facilitate government services for business. However, due to the lack of appropriate ICT infrastructure and digital illiteracy among SMEs, e-Government projects are abundant. This is an empirical research that closely investigates the e-readiness of SMEs to adopt e-Government services. A conceptual model is proposed based on reviewing the all e-readiness assessments and relevant adoption literature. The Egyptian e-Government project is selected as an example of e-Government services offered for SMEs in developing countries. Surveying SMEs in Egypt confirmed the importance of the e-readiness factors as the first step in adoption. However, being e-ready is not enough for adoption. Other factors including benefits of using e-Government services should be in place.

Purpose The use of information and communication technologies to provide citizens with the opportunity to give the government their feedback on the rules currently under development is termed as e-rulemaking. Forums – as the main technological tool used for this – has shown many shortcomings and cannot satisfy all the demands of e-rulemaking. Because social networking sites have shown a political impact on ground, they also might have the ability to remedy these shortcomings. This study aims to investigate the possibility of the use of social networking sites in e-rulemaking. Design/methodology/approach This research reviews democratic deliberation theory and e-rulemaking in relation with social networks that are used to develop a proposed conceptual model. A combination of qualitative and quantitative research approaches were used to test the proposed model. Semi-structured interviews for mangers and surveys for citizens were used for data collection and then analyzed to draw empirical conclusions. Findings Certain variable were found to have a statistically significant impact on the dependent variable of this study. The variables include information collection, user interface, privacy, security and use of emoticons in communications. Through this, the research provides an understanding of the variables that significantly and insignificantly affect the use of social networking sites in e-rulemaking. Originality/value This research contributes with a conceptual model that outlines the influence of different variables on e-rulemaking as well as an understanding of how social networking sites could be used to improve e-rulemaking practices and citizen inclusion.