e-Marketing of Egovernment Initiatives

A Case Study of Pakistan

M. Irfanullah Arfeen

United Nations University - Operating Unit on Policy-Driven Electronic Governance (UNU-EGOV), Guimarães, Portugal

QASMS, Quiad-i-Azam University, Islamabad, Pakistan

Keywords: e-Marketing, Government, Public, Technology.

Abstract: The research study examines the role of electronic (e)-marketing to improve the citizen satisfaction about

government initiatives. E-marketing is a new emerging concept and recognized internationally as an enabler

towards achieving good governance while improving the citizens’ satisfaction. Government initiated many

projects for improving the infrastructure and living standard of its citizens but there is inertia in these projects

and government has achieved milestone on papers. However, government can improve its progress and bring

transparency in its projects through e-marketing. In this way, citizens can play important role in the progress

of government projects. This research presented the SWOT analysis and found that e-marketing of

government initiatives is critical in twenty first century, it can help the public sector to take all stakeholders

on board, which improve citizens satisfaction level about government initiatives. This research study

concluded that federal government of Pakistan should focus on e-marketing in order to achieve its objectives

effectively and improve the public sector services to its citizens.

1 INTRODUCTION

Electronic (e)-marketing can be considered as most

effective marketing tool not only for private sector

but also for all government projects, which focus on

online government services, infrastructure and public

health. E-marketing is the use of internet or mobile to

reach its citizens. E-marketing has many advantages

over other conventional methods of marketing. This

study will provide the guidelines to develop the

framework for e-marketing of government projects

based on the Vriens et al (1998) e-marketing process

model. E-Marketing can provide transparency of

government projects and public can up-to-date about

the government progress.

Nowadays, government can improve its services

through e-marketing of its initiatives and provide

complete detail of its projects through online services

(IDeA Knowledge, 2005; eMarketer, 2000).

Furthermore, it added that the government is less

interested to take on board public and taking

government initiative on political basis in developing

countries. As such, e-marketing of government

initiatives is not necessary for political leadership but

todays’ environments have made e-marketing best

option and no longer a luxury choice. According to

Mulgan and Albury (2003) e-marketing is very vital

for improving the citizens satisfaction level with

government initiatives.

In the last ten years or so, demand for e-marketing

of government initiatives increasing and public wants

correct information about government initiative.

What this study would like to point out is that, e-

marketing in the public sector has not yet been

perceived and explained largely using the academic

field of e-marketing, but rather by using different

theories and models such as e-government, public

sector reform, public policy, and public management

theories. Now, government needs to look on this new

perspective, i.e. e-marketing of Government

initiatives to recognize the importance of citizens’

feedback.

1.1 Problem Statement

“To what extent and in what manner can e-marketing

streamline and improve the citizens’ satisfaction level

about government initiative in Pakistan through use

of Information and Communication Technologies?”

Arfeen M.

e-Marketing of Egovernment Initiatives - A Case Study of Pakistan.

DOI: 10.5220/0006489801080113

In Proceedings of the 9th International Joint Conference on Knowledge Discovery, Knowledge Engineering and Knowledge Management (KMIS 2017), pages 108-113

ISBN: 978-989-758-273-8

2 LITERATURE REVIEW

With modernization of government and e-

government services, public sector can provide

maximum its services through its websites. Now,

government can do e-marketing of its initiative

through government portal. In this way, government

role is changing and government need to define what

are e-marketing of government initiatives means and

what are the requirements for improving the citizen

satisfaction about the public policies and

implementation of its strategies. E-marketing of

public sector projects is required online services and

highly educated government employees who can

provide all information online and open door polices

because public has rights for information.

Citizens want government initiatives to be result

oriented: they want access to correct and often detail

information about government projects. They want

correct information of government development

initiatives. E-marketing can be considered new

concept for the developing countries where

government can reach to its people through electronic

means.

2.1 Justification and Need for Research

Nowadays, this is a burning issue and the government

of Pakistan is losing millions of rupees due to

inefficiency of the public sector and poor quality of

work. This sector still based on minimum research

and has become outdated after new development like

public sector innovation.

Government is taking many initiatives without

considering citizens concerns about these projects. E-

marketing can help the government to reach its

citizens and take their feedback which will help the

government to improve its performance. Public sector

innovation make easy for government to reach its

citizens and provide them all information through

online services (Arfeen, 2009; OECD, 2009; DFID,

2007; InfoDev, 2007; Microsoft, 2007a).

Nowadays, many developed countries have

provided all information online about their projects to

its citizens. However, it is still in its nascent stage in

developing countries (Jaeger, 2003; Leith et al, 2004).

E-marketing of public sector projects has just started

to be investigated in developing countries like

Pakistan.

According to the United Nations e-Government

Survey, measured for 193 countries, in e-Government

Development Index (EGDI) Pakistan’s ranking was

137 in 2003, which improved to 136 in 2005 and to

131 in 2008. However, in 2010 its ranking dropped

drastically by 15 ranks to 146. In same way, in 2012

its ranking further dropped by 10 ranks to 156.

Recently, its ranking further dropped to 159 (Figure

1). In e-Participation (EPART) Pakistan’s ranking

dropped from 63 to 114. Nevertheless, Pakistan can

improve its ranking by focusing onto find out ways to

improve citizen participation through e-marketing

such as Pakistan government portal

www.pakistan.gov.pk should provide all projects

detail on its website and take citizens feedback on

government initiatives as well as provide services in

the Urdu and other local languages.

Figure 1: United Nations e-Government Development

Index for Pakistan. Source: http://www.unpan.org/egovkb.

2.2 Requirements of e-Marketing

The government employee should be technically-

savvy and open to public by providing all government

information to them through online. Government

employees should be familiar with the e-marketing

tools. Only then will the e-marketing of government

projects be truly effective and the Government can be

said to be in an innovative position. Understanding

the necessary e-marketing techniques required to be

adapted for the effective utilization of government

funds.

Government is not getting the desired results as it

has not yet change in attitude also required apart from

skilled manpower, and hardware. Developing

countries need to use e-marketing technique to

approach its citizens and improve the government

efficiency and effectiveness. Implementation of

government projects to improve public living

standards still frequent occurring project failures. E-

marketing of government projects have been useful in

understanding and learning how to best use ICT for

improving efficiency and effectiveness of public

sector (Tschang et al, 2002). This problem is widely

recognized in the community of Pakistan and

common agreement exists on the need for

sophisticated e-marketing of government projects.

Sustainable development and successful public

sector initiatives require project implementers to

understand the citizen needs. E-marketing provides

the project sponsors and stakeholders all the

information through online mode about the level of

accomplishment and success (Batchelor & Norrish,

2005). Pakistani government can achieve sustainable

development through focusing on e-marketing

technique to approach citizens about the government

initiatives.

2.3 Gap Identification

E-marketing of government projects is new concept

and it can provide real-time information about

government projects to its citizens and help the

government to overcome the failure rate of its

development projects. However, low costs and digital

processing allows government to approach huge

number of population, e-marketing can help Pakistan

to improve the public sector performance. E-

marketing is relatively new way to approach citizens,

in manual system government cannot reach people

easily whereas through e-marketing government can

improve its efficiency and effectiveness. In

government projects, main focus on targets

achievements without taking on board the citizens

become the reason for projects failures. Nevertheless,

many government projects fail because of gap

between targets achieve by government in papers and

in real ground story is totally different (Heeks, 2006).

Thus, e-marketing is the only way by that government

can provide all its information to people and get their

feedback through emails or other electronic means.

As a result of this, gap between traditional

government and e-government can be identified (see

figure 2). In this way, this research is to study the gap

and to provide e-marketing model/framework for

government initiative in Pakistan to improve public

sector performance and citizens satisfaction.

Figure 2: e-Marketing of Government Initiatives for

Citizens’ Satisfaction.

e-Marketing is the way by use of that government can

bridge gap between government and citizen and

provide information to its people about government

initiatives (Gupta et al. 2008; and Chen et al. 2006).

Government projects absorb an increasing proportion

of public sector budget to fulfill promises (possibly

over-promises) to provide solutions to many public

problems. While many governments have recognized

and taken initiatives to implement e-marketing of

government projects and evidence has shown that

most government projects fail that can be considered

as partial or complete failures (Heeks, 2006).

However, Pakistani government can overcome this

problem by e-marketing of its projects.

Pakistani government has population with

different cultures, religions and languages. E-

marketing is the only way through that government

can take on board all citizens about its projects. It will

create transparency and make the government

accountable. E-marketing of government initiative

help the government to approach all citizens

regardless of their distance (Sandberg & Pan, 2007)

and culture; 24 hours a day and 7 days a week (Wang

et al, Bretschneider, & Gant, 2005, Oostveen & Van

de Besselaar, 2004; Becker, 2004).

The effectiveness of e-marketing depends on the

access of government online services. Online services

provided by the government can help the people to

submit its feedback to government about the

achievement of its milestones (Prybutok et al, 2008).

The role of government is highlighted from a

different perspective, mainly connected to its

performance. Grindle (2004) noted that “when

government performs poorly, the consequences are

wasted resources, undelivered services and denial of

social, legal and economic protection for citizens –

especially the poor”. The public sector projects need

to be effectively managed in developing countries in

order to prepare for better future.

3 RESEARCH OBJECTIVES

The main objective is to study the e-marketing of

government initiatives to improve the public

satisfaction level about government projects in

Pakistan. The researcher is using e-marketing

techniques for measuring the impact on citizens

satisfaction. Government projects can give the desire

results by taking on board the citizens. Following are

the sub-objectives of this study:

1) To select significant federal government

agencies and analyze how ICT innovation has been

specifically carried out and implemented through e-

marketing of government initiatives.

2) To identify and analyse the important

organizational and cultural factors that influence (or

hinder and help) the effective use of ICT in e-

marketing of these projects particularly in FGAs.

Traditional

Government

Tranformation eGovernment

3) To develop e-marketing Model for

government initiatives in Pakistan so that government

organisations would be able to provide efficient and

effective public services to its citizens.

3.1 Significance of the Study

The academic significance of the study is that it will

provide new dimension to the Pakistan researchers to

work on the impact of e-marketing of government

initiatives and provides base for further studies.

This research is important to make e-government

infrastructure more accountable, trustworthy,

responsive, advance and transparent. The use of

government websites is one of the growing activities.

This study provides directions to the government to

adopt the e-government in the department which are

not using the information technology for the

provision of services.

4 METHODS AND TOOLS

This section explains the methodology that will be

designed for identification, investigation and analysis

of variables that affect adoption of e-marketing of

government initiatives taken by Federal Government

Agencies (FGA) of Pakistan. For this purpose, FGAs

will be the unit of observation and analysis. Thus this

study will concentrate on the latest trend of e-

marketing of public sector projects for improving the

public satisfaction about the government initiatives in

Pakistan.

This is new era, many citizens have access to

Information and Communication Technology (ICT),

they have started to interact through internet so that

internet is basic need for the online marketing. In

addition, this research explores the impact of external

and internal factors for improving the public

satisfaction about government initiatives. This is an

important first exploratory empirical study of e-

marketing of government projects like Health

Management Information System (HMIS) of Federal

Government Hospital; Pakistan Institute of Medical

Sciences (PIMS). This study focuses on the factors

that have positive impact on citizens’ satisfaction and

public feedback play the very important role through

e-marketing.

4.1 Theoretical Framework

In this research, there is only one dependent variable;

and it is the outcome variable, that one is trying to

predict and explain. For example, if a study is done

to determine how one know that citizens are

more/less satisfied with the public sector than others,

public satisfaction is the dependent variable. The

independent variables, also known as the predictor or

explanatory variables, are the factors that explain

variation in the dependent variable. In other words,

these are the causes. For example, citizen can be more

satisfied with public sector if government agencies do

e-marketing of government initiatives. So

'government initiatives' is the independent variables,

and 'public satisfaction' is the dependent variable

whereas e-marketing in the public sector can be

considered as moderating variable (see figure 3).

Figure 3: Dependent, moderating and independent

variables.

4.1.1 Unit of Analysis

For this research, unit of analysis are following two

FGAs’ initiatives:

Ministry of Religious Affairs and Inter-faith

Harmony

Project: According to PC-1 revised (2006) Hajj

Process Automation was the government initiative

taken by Electronic Government Directorate to make

Hajj Process as a single point of access for all major

Hajj related services.

Ministry of National Health Services Regulation

and Coordination

Project: Islamabad Hospital HMIS (Hospital

Management Information System) and Networking

Facilities to Children Hospital (PIMS) have changed

the nature of the work of the officers (MoIT, 2008).

Now, they are spending more time in analyzing

information than on collecting and processing it. The

project has improved patient care services, overall

efficiency of hospital processes and has inculcated

great interest in Islamabad hospital staff for usage of

IT Technology.

This study employs multiple methods of data

collection in accordance with the latest research

approach of triangulation. In addition, researchers

used delphi method to collect data by means of

surveys, visits, interviews, and literature study

(Prescott &Soeken, 1989). Empirical studies form

important complementary sources of secondary

information.

Government

Initiatives

E-Marketing

Public

Satisfaction

The researcher would select the Delphi method to

collect the judgments of experts in a group decision-

making setting. Both qualitative and quantitative

methods can be used in the 3-rounds Delphi process.

The Delphi method may be only one component of

the research study e.g. Delphi outputs may be verified

and generalized with surveys and field visits.

4.1.2 Sample Size

The sample is the population of Islamabad Capital

Territory and senior government officials for the in-

depth analysis of the outcomes of the Delphi Sessions

(Collis and Hussey, 2003). This research provided an

in-depth evaluation of the e-marketing of government

initiatives especially with citizen-centric approach.

5 FINDINGS

5.1 SWOT Analysis

In this section, the challenges of e-government

initiatives for Pakistan as a developing country is

analyzed. SWOT-analyses are presented, with a focus

on political, social, economic and technological

aspects (see Table 1 & 2).

Table 1: Internal Strategic Factor Analysis Summary

(IFAS).

trengths Weaknesses

People eager to learn IT skills

Skilled people possible export

product

E-governance argument for

external funding

Transparency for businesses

(procurement)

Combination with

democratisation reforms

Internet as pull factor

Modern image

Everything is new: no negative

legacy

Leapfrogging possible

Internet as pull factor

Lack of IT standards?

Basic education poor

Low literacy

IT literacy

Different languages

Public acceptance of self-service

models

Skill shortage: competition with

private sector

Investors

Budget control

Lack of cyber laws

No problem owner within

government

Slow decision making process

Hierarchical structures

Short term approach due to

elections

Integration and reform

Shortage IT skills

High cost of internet

Heterogeneous data

Lack of IT standards?

Software licenses

Table 2: External Strategic Factor Analysis Summary

(EFAS).

Opportunities Threats

Employment increases

Education system improve

People get structural job

Cheap manpower widely

available

Promotion of Inte

Higher cost efficiency

New business

Raise external funding

Show competitive edge

Transparency causes natural

change of processes

Reinvent government

hand hardware available

Use one stand

Brain drain IT skilled people after

training

Influence of other cultures

Resistance of people

Digital divide

Privacy

Bureaucracy

Piracy, misuse

Corruption

Maintaining disorder, no

transparency

Political instability

Resistance

Dependency of technology

6 CONCLUSION

If electronic technology is changing all aspects of

society, from the levers of economic and social

growth to citizens' expectations of government,

governments have no choice but to respond and adapt

in order to remain effective and relevant. Recognizing

the power of information and communications

technology (ICT), Pakistan can promote it as a way

of helping businesses improve efficiency, create jobs

and reduce poverty. ICT’s has already shown its

potency in increasing the productivity and

effectiveness of organizations. Now it is necessary to

manage it properly so that it can influence the

competitive position of industry in all sectors of

economy. The use of ICT is fundamental to linking

organizational functions. It can form the base for

managing in a technology environment.

Government's anti-corruption drive will also be given

boost through e-governance because it will bring

openness and transparency in government affairs.

Every ministry and division would be mandated to

other affairs at the government portal by the use of e-

governance. The ultimate test is whether governments

can use e-governance as a technology to operate more

efficiently, to design and implement better policies,

and to provide programs and services more

effectively.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

This paper is a result of the project “SmartEGOV:

Harnessing EGOV for Smart Governance

(Foundations, methods, Tools) / NORTE-01-0145-

FEDER-000037”, supported by Norte Portugal

Regional Operational Programme (NORTE 2020),

under the PORTUGAL 2020 Partnership Agreement,

through the European Regional Development Fund

(EFDR).

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