Seunggyu Park, PhD fellow, guides me as my thesis mentor to make a perfect match between the proposed service delivery framework and the regression model. Keywords: public-private partnership, Union Digital Center, online government services, effectiveness, influential factors.
Introduction
- Rationale of the Study
- Research Question
- Scope of the Study
- Research Design
- Data Collection Method
- Data Analysis Procedure
- Significance of the Study
- Structure of the Paper
Therefore, this study focuses on the effectiveness of digital hubs operating at Union level. Thus, the efficiency of the government in providing online services is accelerated by the work of the UDK.
Literature Review
Theoretical Literature
- Definitions / Explanations
- Union Digital Centers (UDCs), Bangladesh
The partnership was created between three partners viz. telecommunications fund of the Ministry of Posts and Telecommunications, Vietnam Data Communities Company and Intel. Oxford Learner's Dictionaries defines the word 'effectiveness' as 'the fact of producing a desired or intended result; or the fact of producing a successful result'.
Hypothesis Development
The contract management component has a positive influence on the effectiveness of UDCs In general, the availability of financial resources has an influence on the quality of public services (Robinson, 2007). The financial capacity component has a positive influence on the effectiveness of UDCs Hypotheses for Internal Factors; Work & Service Environment. The infrastructure capacity component has a positive influence on the efficiency of UDCs The service delivery capacity of the UDCs depends on both infrastructure and human resource capacities.
The union parishadh component has a positive impact on UDC performance. This circular reiterates the UN's responsibility to help the system become knowledgeable and sustainable. The Aspire to Innovate component has a positive effect on the effectiveness of UDC hypotheses for external factors; Citizen connectivity. The network between the local administration and the component of entrepreneurs has a positive effect on the effectiveness of the UDK.
The effectiveness of UDCs in providing online public services to the grassroots level is considered as the dependent variable in this model.
Research Methodology
- Research Method
- Method of Data Collection
- Collection of Primary Data
- Collection of Secondary Data
- Method of Data Analysis
- Definitions of Variables
- Defining Dependent Variable; Effectiveness
- Defining Independent Variables
A google from has been prepared to convey the survey form through the respondents' e-mail addresses. Before then, the questionnaire has been shared with few relevant people to check the comprehensibility of the statement which has been used to collect responses. Email addresses of the entrepreneurs have thus been collected firstly from the "ekseba" platform through the monitoring authority, a2i, and secondly from the registered authority.
The first section includes open spaces to get objective data from the respondents, such as: center name, location, entrepreneur's gender, work experience as an entrepreneur, etc. Here, efficiency will be demonstrated with the centers' monthly income and number of service recipients. These achievements of the UDCs can be considered as their effectiveness in providing services to the marginalized people.
Both the sets of dependent and independent variables of proposed service delivery framework (Figure 4) come from various literature.
Data Analysis & Discussion
Respondent Demography
Descriptive Statistics of survey respondents
Reliability of the Survey Instrument
The UDC has an alternative internet source that can be used if there is a disruption in the regular connection. There are sufficient facilities for citizens to surf the Internet or use computers themselves. Obtaining services from the UDC is cheaper for citizens than visiting public offices.
The members of the UDC Management Committee have proper knowledge about the online based government. Citizens show their support for UDC and the entrepreneurs to ensure better services. Two components (service capacity and availability of online public services) in the table show the alpha value less than 0.6.
In the questionnaire of the conducted research, the service capacity component includes six statements with different scale levels, such as; the working hours of the entrepreneurs.
Pearson’s Correlation Coefficients Test
These results of correlations show that only three variables have a positive and significant relationship with income (financial and service delivery capacity, network within the UDCs). Among them, service delivery capacity shows r at 0.603 and 0.611 for income and service delivery respectively as dependent variable. The other two factors; financial capacity and network within the UDCs have their significance level at p<0.05.
There are nine and eight variables under Tables 9 and 10 with only positive relationships with dependent variable which are not significant. However, these relationships (positive) indicate that the increase in the value of independent variable will increase the value of dependent variable. This means that the correlations are opposite; increase in value of independent variable indicates decrease in value of dependent variable.
On the contrary, service delivery capacity cannot be found to be related to the quality of manpower, Union Parishad, Upazila Nirbahi Officer and citizen linkage factors.
Multiple Regression Analysis
The coefficient of determination or R2 presents the extent of independent variables to explain the proportion of variance in the dependent variable. To understand the relationship between independent variables and dependent variables, whether positive or negative, the unstandardized coefficients use beta. Positive value means that increase in independent variable will bring the dependent variable in the same direction or increase the value of dependent variable.
On the other hand, negative value means that increasing the value of independent variable will push the change of dependent variable to opposite direction, or decrease the value of dependent variable. However, there are two variables, quality of workforce and role of Union Parishadh, show negative and significant relationship with the dependent variable. This model is to show the relationships of independent variables to number of service recipients (monthly) of UDCs as dependent variable.
The value of R2 (squared) shows how well the calculated or dependent variable can be explained by the predicted, presupposed or independent variables.
Comparative Models
This table shows some interesting findings, such as new significant variables in model 1 and 2. First, in the regression analysis between internal factors and income (Model 1), next to the service delivery capacity, the infrastructural capacity component shows a negative relationship with a significant value at p <0.05. The role of Upazila Nirbahi Officer takes a new negative value with significance p<0.1.
Finally, the significance of the network within the UDCs increases to the highest level at p<0.01 in model 2. While comparing the results between the regression model of internal factors and combined factors, the component of infrastructure capabilities takes on a negative value at the significance of p< 0.1. Finally, the significance of the network within the UDCs increases to the highest level at p<0.01 in model 5, which is the significance of p<0.05 under model 6.
Education, as a kind of control variable, finds no significance in model 4, where the significance for this factor remains the same in model 5 &.
Hypotheses Testing
This component of service delivery capacity is positively related to income and service recipients in both analyses. However, the results obtained in Tables 13 and 14 mean that this hypothesis is not supported. Although the combined analysis does not support this hypothesis, it is considered not to be supported.
In the regression analysis with income and service recipients as the dependent variable, the Upazila Nirbahi officer component has a negative beta value in both cases. It is supported below p <0.5 for monthly income, and p <0.1 for service recipients. In connection with 'UDK income' and 'service recipients' as dependent variables, this component 'citizen awareness' does not show statistically significant results.
In relation to UDK income and service recipients, the network within the UDK component shows a beta with a positive value.
Discussion of Findings
- The Variables of Supported Hypotheses
- The Variables of Not Supported Hypotheses
First, service delivery capacity is the most important variable, with a value of p=0.000, to ensure the effectiveness of UDCs. The research found that although entrepreneurs are responsible to repair or replace non-functional equipment, they were not interested in doing so at the initial stage of establishing UDCs due to the short duration of the contract (TIB, 2017). Also, the practice of keeping the UDC open on weekends ensures business for entrepreneurs and easy service for citizens.
In the case of UDCs, there is a blog 'eksheba', a facebook group for entrepreneurs and so on. Among these hypotheses, only one component obtains significant values while performing the regression of internal factors only, viz. the role of the UDK management committee as the first governing body is significant at p<0.05 in relation to the monthly income of the UDK in model 2 and is significant at p<0.01 in model 5 in relation to service recipients. First, although the role of Union Parishadh shows a significant inverse relationship with the performance (recipients of income and services) of UDCs, it obtains a level of significance at p<0.05 in models 2 and 5 (relationship of externalities with income and recipients of services) in the final models, 3 and 6 (all independent variables), does not gain significance.
According to the government circular, the role of Upazila Nirbahi Officer was to monitor the UDCs visiting the centers and resolve disputes between UP chairman and entrepreneurs if necessary.
Conclusion and Recommendation
Conclusion
- Summary of Findings
- Implications of the Study
- Limitations of the Study
Therefore, as an internal factor of the work and service environment of UDCs, service delivery capacity shows positive influence on effectiveness. On the other hand, most hypotheses are not supported by data, for example; On the other hand, since it only focuses on the UDC of Jashore district, this study can be replicated in any other region of the country.
Future research can be conducted using different parts of the model such as; internal factors or external factors. The answers asked to the service providers showed that few questions were a form of self-evaluation. The measurement indicators of the dependent variable (monthly income and number of service recipients) were not reliable enough to fully explain the effectiveness of the centers.
It collected data from the monitoring body, which shows the weakness of the management system.
Recommendations
- Opportunities and Challenges of UDCs
- Recommending Solutions
Now people can apply online with the help of UDCs who request the members of the Union Parishad instead. Moreover, the agent banking system of the UDCs facilitates citizens to get the grants. The Aspire to Innovate is only a program under the Prime Minister's Office that runs with the financial assistance of the International Organizations.
There is no IT expert on the UDC management committee, and even the management committee members sometimes lack any orientation to the functions of UDC. On the other hand, there should be a single website where all citizens' information can be found. The UDC Management Committee members and even the Union Parishadh members should get some information about UDC.
There are so many other internal and external factors related to the service delivery practice of UDCs that they cannot obtain statistically significant values in the analysis.
