Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to assess the maturity level of the Jordanian electronic Government (e-Government) program from the citizen’s perspective. This assessment aims to help in determining whether the Jordanian e-Government strategy, set back in 2002, has achieved its main objectives which are delivering services to people across society, irrespective of location, economic status, education or ICT ability; improving the ICT readiness and infrastructure; and developing new service delivery channels and increase the involvement of citizens through the use of ICTs. Jordan started a national e-Government initiative aiming to streamline government procedures and provide government information and services to the public online. This paper reveals the levels of citizens’ awareness, acceptance, usage and willingness to use the e-Government services in Jordan. It investigates issues such as Jordan’s e-Government maturity level, citizen’s preferences when dealing with e-Government, citizen’s attitude toward using various e-services, citizen’s concerns and the required services. Design/methodology/approach – To achieve the research purposes, which needed a high rate of respondents to generalize the findings, we opted for quantitative research through questionnaires as an appropriate instrument base to address the citizens’ awareness and usage of e-Government services. In total, 7,238 distributed surveys were conducted across Jordan. The average of the responses rate in the three regions was 58.6 per cent. Findings – The citizen’s interest in e-Government services is declining, as the citizens’ level of awareness of e-Government and its services is still modest after more than ten years of the start of the e-Government program in Jordan. Citizens’ attitude toward using e-Government services is changing and determined by various factors and issues reported in the paper. Research limitations/implications – The selected governorates might not be the best governorates to represent the three regions of Jordan, the data took almost 15 months to be collected and analyzed which may have resulted in some changes to the reality. Finally, developing countries are not a homogenous group and, therefore, the results of this paper may not be generalizable. Originality/value – The findings present a number of key factors that hinder Jordan’s e-Government development. These findings can be useful for researchers and practitioners, as they provide rich insights on e-Government development. The findings can be also useful to other developing countries, as they can help them in understanding citizen related challenges when designing, planning and implementing their e-Government initiatives.

Mobile computing and the wireless web are likely to become the next major business models following the era of electronic commerce. In particular, rapid growth and the advancement in mobile technologies indicate that mobile commerce (m-commerce) will be the dominant business model in the future. In developing countries, services in mobile commerce are in a phase of rapid growth, yet the relevant research is limited. Thus, to increase the adoption of m-commerce among consumers in developing countries such as Jordan, the current study develops a model of consumers' intentions to transfer from traditional (internet-based) e-commerce to mcommerce. The proposed model was empirically validated using a total of 451 paper-based questionnaires that were collected from undergraduate students at three private Jordanian universities. The reliability and validity of the structural model were evaluated by performing exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses, while the structural model was assessed by employing the structural equation modelling approach. The findings demonstrate that consumers' intention to shift from traditional e-commerce to m-commerce can be explained by factors related to perceived differences in technology and value. The research model offers useful and insightful information to help practitioners and developers focus their efforts in designing and delivering effective mcommerce applications.

This research paper argues that date palm fronds are feasible for recycling in bitmus production (organic agricultural soil) and have a good potential as an organic fertilizer. Entrepreneurial projects urge manufacturers to reconsider the use of these wastes of raw materials, and try to preserve them for organic agricultural soil and organic fertilizers' liquid to be used for various plants and trees. This could help in preserving the environment and reducing the consumption of natural resources. The project aims to benefit from the wastes of palm trees in Al Ghor, Jordan, mainly date palm fronds which are abundant (They are presently burned, causing pollution and harm for farmers as well as the soil, the environment and the local community). Such fronds are transformed into useful forage for nutrient animals, livestock and soil fertilizers. The products from this project will be of high value for farmers and can be available as an alternative for imported fertilizers at preferable costs. In addition the produce will contribute in overcoming the shortage of forage materials in Jordan.

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