Impact of national e-participation levels on inclusive human development and environmental performance: The mediating role of corruption control

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.giq.2021.101615Get rights and content

Highlights

  • Investigates the impact of E-Participation (EP) on Inclusive Human Development (IHD) and Environmental Performance.

  • Human-centred Development and “just” environmental sustainability paradigm connects EP, IHD, and Environmental Performance.

  • Agency Theory, and Rent-seeking Theory is used to conceptualize the mediating role of Corruption Control.

  • EP has a positive influence on Inclusive Human Development and Corruption Control.

  • EP has a positive influence on Environmental Performance indirectly via IHD as well as indirectly via Corruption Control.

Abstract

Against a backdrop of scant scholarly evidence regarding the effectiveness of E-Participation (EP) in enabling broader macro-level outcomes, we posit that electronic participation use by governments in engaging citizens leads to a more inclusive human development and superior environmental performance, directly as well as indirectly through corruption control. Towards this, we employ human-centered development perspective, the “just” environmental sustainability paradigm, agency theory, and rent-seeking theory to draw linkages between EP, Corruption Control, Inclusive Human Development, and Environmental Performance. Using publicly available archival data for 132 countries, we carry out an empirical analysis and establish that higher EP is positively associated with Inclusive Human Development and subsequently Environmental Performance. Specifically, our results substantiate the role of Corruption Control as an intervening mechanism via which EP's impact on Environmental Performance assumes effectiveness. Our findings contribute to the theoretical discourse on EP by extending the analysis of EP impacts beyond its immediate outcomes (such as Corruption Control) to include higher-order macro-level impacts (such as Inclusive Human Development and Environmental Performance). In doing so, we uncover fresh evidence of EP's effectiveness in enabling Inclusive Human Development and Environmental Performance on a global scale. Based on these observations, we draw implications for theory and practice, and avenues for future research.

Keywords

Inclusive human development
Environmental performance
Environmental justice
Human-centred development perspective
E-participation
Corruption control

Cited by (0)

Prakrit Silal is a Ph.D. student in the Department of Management Information Systems at Indian Institute of Management, Calcutta. His research interests include Digital Government, E-Participation, Information and Communication Technology for Development (ICT4D). His recent works have been presented in various international conferences including ICIS 2019 and AOM 2020. His AOM 2020 article was nominated for the prestigious Carolyn B. Dexter award. Some of his recent works are forthcoming in journals such as Health Marketing Quarterly, and International Journal of Technology Diffusion.

Debashis Saha, currently a Full Professor in the MIS area in IIM-Calcutta (IIMC), has been teaching IT for more than 25 years now. His research interests include IT strategy and governance, ICT4D, Emerging IT paradigms, Digital Disruption, E-Governance, Business Transformation, and Business-driven IT. He has co-supervised 17 doctoral theses, published about 285 research papers in various journals/conferences, and directed four funded projects on IT. His research has appeared in major journals including Decision Support Systems, OMEGA-The International Journal of Management Science, Information System Frontiers, among others. He has also served on the editorial board of selected international journals.

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