Implementing successful G2B initiatives in the HKSAR: an empirical evaluation of G2B websites

This research study aimed to gain insight into the implementation of government-to-business (G2B) initiatives for small and medium sized enterprises (SMEs) in Hong Kong, focusing on the underlying importance, benefits and challenges of these initiatives rather than simply articulating the number of electronic services provided to SMEs and the investments spent only. The current study therefore compared and evaluated e-Commerce and e-Government to examine the similarities and differences between these two mainstream Internet-based systems. An existing method for evaluating both business-to-consumer (B2C) and business-to-business (B2B) systems, namely, Extended Web Assessment Method (EWAM) was also reviewed. All these discussions collectively provide the theoretical framework for developing the theoretical research model of the current study, thereby setting out the research context and facilitating the conduct of the main investigations. The main investigations of the current study were both descriptive and correlation-oriented, and they were carried out using a theory-grounded survey, through which SMEs' attitudes, behaviors and preferences about using G2B electronic services were examined. The survey questions incorporated the theoretical focus essential for investigating potential relationships among the variables and for testing the research hypotheses. The main study concluded that the implementation of prevalent G2B initiatives in Hong Kong has been largely connected to pursuing conservative paradigms in public service provision. In conjunction with this claim, the current research realizes that the service providers have been inclining to dominate over both the business and technical aspects of the underlying implementation approaches and practices. As such, the service providers deserve to enact the role of big gatekeepers in delivering online information and services, meaning that they indeed tender substantial amounts of pre-determinacy in terms of placing a number of prescriptions and constraints on the functions, features and facilities of the online information and service products just mentioned. The current research therefore lays out the new e-Government strategic agenda to increase the overall transparency of new public management. For this new agenda, the current research emphasizes the importance of the provision of resilient-based public services (RPS), thereby advancing the democratic empowerment of all the stakeholders engaged in both prevalent as well as future G2B initiatives, and also assuring to maximize the multifold effects of value creations.